A bird's eye view of Taicang, a county-level city in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Taicang-based Xiangtang Group ranked 28th on the recent list for Suzhou's top 50 private enterprises, local media reported on Aug 12.

Evolving from a small slipper factory to a large group integrating chemical fibers, modern service, and biomedicine businesses, the success of Xiangtang Group has benefited a lot from Yiwu's burgeoning private sector economy.

The city of Taicang praises the role of private sector economy and has been committed to forging a favorable environment for innovation-driven private enterprises. Since 2010, the city has inked comprehensive cooperation deals with 21 universities and institutes.

In 2018, Taicang ranked second in China's top 100 county-level cities in terms of technological innovation, and was home to a total of 237 certificated hi-tech private enterprises. As of the end of 2019, the number of private enterprises in Taicang has added up to 31,200.