As the May Day holiday comes to a close, several figures from before the holiday remain fresh in our minds:
367 projects were signed, with a total investment of 371.95 billion yuan!
These impressive results come from Suzhou—dubbed the “strongest prefecture-level city”—at its inaugural Global Investment Promotion Conference.
The goal is to attract global capital and entrepreneurs to choose Suzhou, invest in Suzhou, and put down roots in Suzhou.
People often say that investment promotion is the “signature skill” passed down through generations of Suzhou officials. Suzhou’s approach to investment promotion is also remarkably forward-looking.
With results-driven investment promotion, its reputation is well-deserved.
When it comes to attracting investment, everyone is eager to bring in large enterprises that “reach the sky and stand firm on the ground”—they deliver quick results and generate strong momentum.
However, Suzhou is different; it has chosen what appears to be the “most unassuming” path, starting with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
To be honest, not everyone possesses the profound understanding and decisive execution required to provide excellent services to the “vast number” of SMEs and attract them with the best possible measures.
The Ceiling of Investment Promotion
“Just look at Suzhou’s lineup—it’s truly in a league of its own.”
During the conference, various investment promotion groups were buzzing with discussions about the event, sharing insights on Suzhou’s “major moves” in attracting investment.
Reportedly, at the investment promotion conference attended by over 1,000 people, 429 Fortune 500 companies were present.
Such an “all-star lineup” is truly characteristic of Suzhou.
As the strongest prefecture-level city, Suzhou boasts at least “four strengths”:
First, its strength lies in GDP.
If I recall correctly, Suzhou is the sixth city to cross the threshold into the “2 trillion yuan GDP club.”
Among the 26 cities nationwide with GDP exceeding one trillion yuan, its per capita GDP surpasses that of Shanghai.
Second, its strength lies in its industries.
In the information and electronics and equipment manufacturing sectors, the combined scale has long exceeded 8 trillion yuan. It is said that Suzhou will develop four major trillion-yuan-scale leading industries: "electronic information, high-end equipment, advanced materials, and new energy."
Third, its strength lies in foreign investment.
To date, Suzhou has attracted more than 18,000 foreign-invested enterprises, with cumulative actual foreign investment exceeding $160 billion, ranking first in Jiangsu and among the top nationwide.
Fourth, its strength lies in its population.
Suzhou has a permanent resident population of nearly 13 million, making it the most populous city in Jiangsu Province and a megacity with an urban population exceeding 5 million.
These achievements are all attributable to outstanding enterprises.
Since the beginning of 2024, Suzhou has successfully signed and secured a large number of high-quality foreign investment projects, including the China headquarters of Siemens Avenda, the Suzhou production base of French company bioMérieux, the China coffee sales headquarters of Sukofina, Panasonic Electronic Materials, the investment headquarters of Swiss company Cumulus, and the high-end plasticizer new materials project of Germany’s BASF Group.
Data shows that as of the end of 2023, the total number of listed companies in Suzhou reached 263, including 217 domestic A-share listed companies, ranking fifth nationwide. Among Suzhou’s A-share listed companies, those on the STAR Market account for one-quarter.
In other words, one out of every four companies is listed on the STAR Market. In Jiangsu, one out of every two STAR Market-listed companies is based in Suzhou.
Many regions are closely monitoring these high-tech enterprises. Why are they flocking to Suzhou? What sets Suzhou’s investment promotion efforts apart?
The True Art of Investment Promotion
As early as 2021, Cao Lubao, then Secretary of the Suzhou Municipal Party Committee, outlined the city’s investment promotion strategy.
He emphasized a development strategy that “aims to both reach for the sky and take root in the ground, while also spreading far and wide, vigorously attracting small and medium-sized enterprises to build a robust industrial ecosystem.”
In fact, the “pioneering” enterprises of today were once part of the “grassroots” base of the past.
This “long-term” strategic vision is the key to the region’s success in establishing and maintaining its position as a leading hub for the biopharmaceutical industry.
Suzhou’s investment promotion efforts originated in the Suzhou Industrial Park but quickly sent ripples throughout the entire city—like a stone cast into a calm pond, creating waves that spread outward from the center.
Kunshan leveraged the Taiwanese business community in Shanghai to take the lead in attracting a large number of Taiwanese enterprises as part of an integrated industrial chain. It invested heavily in urban infrastructure—specifically the construction of wide boulevards—giving it a hardware advantage over neighboring areas.
Meanwhile, Wujiang relied on investment promotion models featuring turnkey factory construction and “move-in-ready” facilities, becoming the second-largest hub for Taiwanese businesses in both Southern Jiangsu and Suzhou.
Consequently, a popular saying at the time went: “Kunshan’s roads, Wujiang’s speed.”
This targeted approach to investment promotion has continued to evolve, culminating in the “Taicang Sino-German Industrial Park,” a German industrial park in Taicang.
The largest concentration of German investment in China is not in Qingdao, Shandong, but in Taicang, Jiangsu.
Rather than saying that Suzhou’s private economy and private enterprises are exceptionally strong, it is more accurate to recognize that, over the more than 40-year history of reform and opening-up, it is the investment promotion strategy—with its tactical acumen, effective execution, and foresight—that has been the true driving force.
In February of this year, the Suzhou Municipal Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued Document No. 1 [2024] of the Suzhou Development and Reform Commission on Institutional Reform, titled “Notice on Implementing Several Immediate Measures to Promote the Development and Expansion of the Private Economy,” outlining 20 measures across five key areas.
Subsequently, Liu Xiaotao, Secretary of the Suzhou Municipal Party Committee, led a delegation on a series of visits to Singapore, France, and the Netherlands to carry out intensive investment promotion efforts.
It can be said that since the beginning of 2024, plans have been in place to organize high-level delegations for overseas investment promotion.
Consequently, during the Global Investment Promotion Conference, enterprises from various countries partnered with Suzhou.
For example, Saudi Arabia’s Al-Farna Electrical Systems Company is investing in the construction of an electrical systems R&D center and sales headquarters; the Kleber R&D and manufacturing base project is being funded by Germany’s Kleber Group, a leading enterprise in the rubber industry…
Boosted by a wave of major projects, Suzhou has signed 809 investment agreements so far this year, with a total investment exceeding 580 billion yuan. Forty-six Fortune Global 500 companies, including ZF, Continental, and Eaton, have all chosen to increase their investments and expand production in Suzhou.
Without a "vast number" of small and medium-sized enterprises, there can be no emergence of "leading" large enterprises.
This demonstrates that Suzhou’s distinctive approach to investment promotion is rapidly translating into tangible results.
Investment Attraction Competitiveness
In fact, Suzhou’s launch of this “New Year offensive” across three Eurasian countries serves as a living example, demonstrating to foreign investors the city’s determination and capability to build a first-class business environment characterized by marketization, rule of law, and internationalization, while highlighting Suzhou’s pragmatic measures to attract, protect, stabilize, and nurture businesses.
Today, the “primary core competitiveness” in investment promotion lies in ensuring business stability, protecting businesses, maintaining business confidence, and fostering a welcoming business climate.
This is not something that can be achieved merely by paying lip service or writing it on paper. While many regions now talk extensively about the “business environment,” how many are truly implementing it?
In Suzhou, guided by the principles of “streamlining, unification, and efficiency” as well as “small government, big society,” we aim from the outset to achieve a model aligned with international standards and compatible with a market economy, transforming government functions and strengthening our service-oriented mindset.
This means that the government is not about what it regulates, but rather whom it serves and how it serves them, transforming the government-business relationship from one of “regulator and regulated” to one of “service provider and service recipient.”
In this regard, Suzhou serves as the best model.
For decades, it has consistently put different service philosophies into practice, establishing a completely new and flexible government management system and operational mechanism, thereby creating a business-friendly, efficient, and transparent investment environment for local investment.
Furthermore, Suzhou has a clear concept regarding technology-based investment promotion: it does not simply attract every project with a technological component or high-level talent.
Instead, based on the direction of industrial development, the city focuses more on fields such as biomedicine, nanotechnology applications, and artificial intelligence, continuously adjusting and refining its investment promotion strategies in line with national policies, industrial trends, and economic priorities.
Suzhou’s investment promotion team understands that the process is only half complete from initial engagement to signing an agreement. Only when a project breaks ground and begins production can it truly generate “new-quality productive forces.”
Currently, Suzhou is accelerating the development of new-quality productive forces in a way that suits local conditions. It is actively building a “1030” industrial system comprising 10 industrial clusters and 30 industrial chains, striving to establish itself as a leading “Smart Manufacturing City” and providing enterprises with broader investment opportunities.
Regarding talent recruitment, we still remember this motto: “All you need is a backpack; we’ll take care of the rest. Once you arrive in Suzhou, you become our city partner.”
It is precisely this model of meticulous service that has laid the foundation for the rapid development of Suzhou’s high-tech industry.
Although Suzhou operates in a “decentralized” manner, this “decentralization” is itself the result of such refined services.
If we say that the starting point of the Suzhou model was drawing on the Singaporean model, then we can now conclude that without the vigorous development of small and medium-sized enterprises back then, there might not be the Suzhou that stands on the world stage today.
