Recognizing happiness as a hallmark of a successful enterprise within a city and a barometer of high-quality urban progress, Taicang is committed to creating opportunities for entrepreneurs and nurturing a top-tier innovation ecosystem.

Taicang has been named by the Happy Cities of China Forum as one of China's happiest county-level cities an impressive 13 times, leading the chart for nine consecutive years, according to the city government.

"We don't allow any pending approval documents to linger overnight," said Ling Ling, deputy director of the city's data bureau, highlighting Taicang's efficiency and resolve. "Our focus remains on empathetically serving enterprises and residents, with unwavering dedication to swift and efficient approvals," she added.

This exceptional efficiency in approvals has enabled companies including Suzhou Greentech to benefit. The company's expansion project for thermoplastic polyolefin automotive interior materials achieved record-breaking efficiency, taking 26 working days from planning acceptance to certificate acquisition.

Zhou Yue, a spokesperson for the company, said a process that once spanned three months has now been expedited by more than half.

Under the innovative framework of the city's collaborative registration system, various departments — including housing and urban-rural development, resources and planning, and data bureaus — have synergized efforts to revamp project acceptance and real estate registration processes. This model significantly reduces application uploads, streamlines 50 percent of application materials, and slashes approval times by 60 percent.

The renowned "Taicang speed" has attracted around 150,000 business entities, including nearly 40 Fortune Global 500 companies.

In addition to efficiency, Taicang has introduced the 3300-1717 service hotline, offering support for talent recruitment, housing concerns, supply chain assurance, and industrial connections, ensuring that enterprises receive holistic assistance.

For Taicang, creating an optimal environment and a conducive ecosystem for corporate development leads to mutual empowerment and success between the city and its enterprises.

"When selecting our location, Taicang had prepared factory spaces ready for us before we even raised our requirements," said Bernd Hauenstein, general manager of Netzsch Machinery and Instruments (Suzhou).

Additionally, Taicang has streamlined business tax and individual tax registration processes for expatriates, allowing an enterprise to focus on production and operations.

In the Netzsch workshop, employees like Zhu Xiaoyi test control screens for thermal analysis instruments, while German technical engineer Tobias Bartsch gives training to other staff members.

Hauenstein said that engineers from the German headquarters regularly visit Taicang for training sessions, enhancing the professional skills of the local workforce. Meanwhile, Taicang has nurtured a pool of students who seamlessly transition into job roles after graduation, aiding the recruitment of skilled talent for companies.

Tailored services align closely with enterprise needs. To address information gaps between supply and demand, Taicang officials proactively engaged with Jiangsu Yangzi-Mitsui Shipbuilding, an affiliate of Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group, helping to make connections with local companies.

Through two supply-demand matchmaking meetings that attracted more than 30 companies, Yangzi-Mitsui identified four suppliers, providing products worth a total output value nearing 100 million yuan ($13.7 million).

The city has also introduced an online service platform for enterprises, featuring an industrial goods supermarket channel showcasing products such as high-speed permanent magnet motors and elastic composite nonwoven fabrics.

The platform offers diverse procurement demands from local enterprises, like the desulfurization gypsum belt vacuum filter posted by a power generation company, assisting precise and efficient information matching.

By consolidating product resources across industries in Taicang, the online industrial goods supermarket breaks down information barriers between upstream and downstream enterprises, enabling the swift identification of demands and fostering autonomous connections, thus establishing a multitiered, complementary industrial cooperation framework.

As of now, the supermarket has listed 986 products and published 167 product demands, playing a pivotal role in enhancing industrial collaboration and development within Taicang.