Taicang's GDP increases by 6.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to 29.33 billion yuan ($4.36 billion). [Photo/WeChat account: taicangdaily]

Taicang's economy got off to a good start in 2019, with numerous positive indicators over the first three months of the year, local media reported on April 28.

The city's GDP increased by 6.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to 29.33 billion yuan ($4.36 billion), matching national growth rates.

The city's total industrial output amounted to 63.23 billion yuan, up 4.1 percent year-on-year, and its 1,005 industrial companies above designated scale generated 52.73 billion yuan, up 4.9 percent year-on-year.

The output value of high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials and biological medicine sectors totaled 18.14 billion yuan, 16.80 billion yuan and 2.02 billion yuan respectively, year-on-year increases of 6.3 percent, 0.8 percent and 2.4 percent.

Tertiary industry also saw steady growth with an added value increase of 7.2 percent year-on-year to 13.64 billion yuan in the first three months of the year.

The logistics sector also saw strong performance. The cargo throughput at Taicang port surged 9.6 percent to 59.03 million tons. More than 1.26 million containers were delivered to the port, an uptick of 18.4 percent over last year.

Taicang introduced 682 domestic projects with registered capital of 8.28 billion yuan and 20 foreign funded projects worth $409 million, respective year-on-year increases of 7.5 percent and 37.3 percent.