Taicang, a county-level city in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, has experienced notable industrial development during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20).

As of now, the city is home to more than 12,000 industrial companies, including 1,066 above designated scale -- those with annual revenue of 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) or more), which  are expected to generate a total of 247.9 billion yuan in output by the end of 2020, up over 4 percent year-on-year.

The output value of three pillar industries -- high-end equipment, new materials and biomedicine, accounted for 73.6 percent of the total output of companies above the designated size.

The Taicang branch of Germany-based Schaeffler Group became the largest industrial business in Taicang in 2016 and has been increasing its investment in the city since then.

The company had an output of 13.12 billion yuan in the first 10 months of this year, a 5.7-percent year-on-year increase. The figure is expected to surpass 15 billion yuan by December.

In addition to international industrial giants, local private businesses have also played a significant part in the city's industrial growth, with those above the designated size producing 49.15 billion yuan in the first half of this year, up 3.81 percent year-on-year.

Innovation is the backbone of industrial development, local officials said.

The city has been making consistent efforts to promote industrial integration and innovation and push forward structural reform, especially in the manufacturing and emerging sectors.

To date, local companies have established hundreds of technology centers, with one at the State level, 50 at the provincial level and 198 at the municipal level. A dozen intelligent manufacturing plants have also been built.