The Taicang Port Economic & Technological Development Zone was established on December 12, 2002 by the People’s Government of Jiangsu province after an audit that was conducted by the approval authority and administrative hierarchy for national development zones.

On June 29, the General Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China ratified the Taicang Economic Development Zone.

Opening ceremony of the golden autumn trade month

On December 25, the unveiling ceremony of the Taicang Port Economic & Technological Development Zone and the opening ceremony of the 2011 Taicang Golden Economic and Trade Month were held at Taicang Theater.

The zone can boost the national economy, and marks a historic breakthrough for its development.

Deputy secretary of the Suzhou Municipal Party Committee Xu Jianming unveiled the zone. Suzhou deputy mayor Huang Qin, Jiangsu Development and Reform Commission deputy director Lin Yifeng, Jiangsu Commerce Department deputy director Wang, Runliang, Jiangsu Housing and Construction deputy director Liu Dawei, Taicang Port Management Committee deputy director Wang Zhuming, Lu Liusheng, Wang Jianfeng, Lu Weiqi, Song Jianzhong, Sun Yaoming and other local leaders had also attended the event.

The Foreign Investment Department of the Ministry of Commerce delivered a congratulatory message.

They believe the port could accelerate the economic development mode, deepen reforms, strengthen institutional mechanisms, construct resources-savings, promote an eco-friendly region and speed up the transition of the industry-led multi-functional integrated region..

During the opening ceremony, 20 contracts were signed, among which were 17 foreign-financed projects with a total investment of $2.062 billion dollars, $745 million dollars of registered capital, total registered foreign capital of $521 million dollars; three funded projects with a total investment of 2.15 billion yuan, 495 million yuan of registered capital.

The projects provide an impetus for Taicang to lead in modernization. The city had 102 projects signed on that accounted for over 48 billion yuan of total planned investments.

Wang Jianfeng, deputy secretary of the municipal committee and Taicang mayor, presided over the unveiling ceremony.

Taicang Technology Zone

The zone is located to the east of the Yangtze River, south of Shanghai, with the Southern Jiangsu on its back, 40 kilometers away from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, Pudong airport - 80 km and Suzhou - 60 km. The zone links Shanghai with the center of the Yangtze River Delta economic circle.

With about 261.8 square kilometers of land area, which covers 38.8 km of the coastline on the estuary of the Yangtze River.

The Taicang Port and the container trunk port in Shanghai international shipping center, the largest foreign trade port in Jiangsu, will connect the Yangtze River Delta with petroleum and chemical industries, and a national model industrial park.

For the past few years, local GDP and other economic indicators have maintained double-digit annual growth rates. The zone is boosting a modernized riverside port city, branding an advanced manufacturing base, international port logistics base and characteristic modern service industry base.

The zone adheres to scientific planning and national distribution.

Urban green coverage has reached 45 percent. 23 central enterprises such as the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China International Marine Containers (CIMC) and 26 Fortune 500 enterprises such as Exxon Mobil, Procter & Gamble, Nike are operating there. More than 160 German enterprises have settle in the zone ever since the German company Kern Liebers set up operations there.

Taicang has become a hotbed for German investments, which has been jointly awarded the first “Sino-German Business Cooperation Base” by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the German Ministry of Economic Affairs. The zone was awarded the “International Cooperation Base in Science and Technology” by the Ministry of Science and Technology.