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Suzhou Industrial Park reaps benefits

By Song Wenwei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-09-23 17:51

China has witnessed enormous changes, especially in its economic development, since the start of its opening-up and reform campaign thirty years ago.

The propelling forces behind the changes are numerous and one of them is, no doubt, China’s close cooperation with other countries.

At the beginning, forms of cooperation were mainly small amount of overseas investment in Chinese enterprises, and joint ventures, some of which were proven fruitful, and some not.

Yet Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) blazed the path of cooperation at the government level and is surely a successful model that can be duplicated in other areas of China with modification in accordance with the local environment and conditions.

Since it is successful, then what can we learn from the experience of SIP?

SIP is the biggest cooperative project between the governments of China and Singapore and saw its debut in February 1994 as certified by the State Council of PRC.

Sitting beside Lake Jinji (Golden Rooster) in the eastern suburb of Suzhou, a 2500-year-old city in East China’s Jiangsu province, SIP covers an area of 80 sq k. with a population of about 600,000.

Over the past 14 years, SIP has experienced a fast development with the support from both governments and its own innovative endeavor. Its chief economic indices all grow at an annual rate of around 30%, which is much higher than the average national rate.

It is known to all, the success of an action, to a large extent, depends on a good planning. This is certainly true of SIP.

City planning experts, taking good models of city planning in the world, made the blueprint for SIP. It is to be built into a new town of Suzhou with sections of industry, commerce and residence distinctively demarcated.

In the process of development in some areas in China, sometimes plans are only plans. They are often altered without any other reasons than a random idea of a local official.

However, the overall planning of SIP has been strictly carried out and no changes made without rational proof.

In SIP, one never finds the common landscape of factories scattered among residential areas in many other cities in China. This clearly accounts for the rapid increase of population in the area.

So always make a good planning before action.

What next?

Owing to various reasons, quite a number of enterprises and factories are either closed down or bankrupt. So it is a tough task for the governments to solve the problem of unemployment and maintain social stability.

In this respect, SIP has made great contributions.

Over the years, 14,000 companies and enterprises have settled in SIP, creating 270,000 job vacancies.

The increase of employment rate is a great help to the local government in their effort to build a harmonious society.

Yet harmony between environment and man is also what is needed to maintain a sustainable social and economic development.

Examples of damages to the environment brought about by industrial development are countless, especially in the early stages of development.

It is not uncommon that in some areas, local governments seek high economic return at the expense of environment.

However, this is certainly not what SIP does in its development. On the contrary, it has paid meticulous attention to environment protection while attracting investment.

It is always the first prerequisite for any investment in SIP to meet with environmental protection standards.

Though many of the enterprises and companies in SIP are environmentally friendly ones, strict supervision of environmental protection is also exercised at all levels, from the approval of investment projects to production.

The protection of the environment can also be attributed to the structure of industries. Such burgeoning industries as electronics, biopharmaceuticals and new materials have become the pillar industries of SIP.

These industries have helped SIP to yield a gross domestic product of 83.6 billion yuan ($11.9 billion) in 2007, accounting for 15 percent of the city’s total whereas its population and area only occupy 4 percent of the city’s total.

So far, 76 of Fortune 500 have invested in 115 projects in SIP, of which 89 have an investment value of over $100 million.

Economic development is of course what a government needs to promote. But a healthy and sustainable one is more important if we want our children to live a happier life.