The county-level city of Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province, aims to build itself into "Innovative Zhangjiagang" in the next five years. [Photo by Li Wenhong for chinadaily.com.cn]

Zhangjiagang in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, released a five-year action plan for the construction of an "Innovative Zhangjiagang" last October, in an effort to promote the development of a nationally innovative county, according to a local news report on May 8.

The plan stated that Zhangjiagang will strengthen efforts to develop itself into a pilot area for innovation, a leading area for creating a favorable ecosystem for innovation, and a demonstration area for high-quality development among county-level cities in China.

According to the action plan, the city's investment in research and development (R&D) is expected to account for 4 percent of its regional GDP by 2025, and high-tech enterprises in the city will grow at an average annual rate of 30 percent. The city will build more than 10 domestic and foreign innovation enclaves, and the number of industry-university-research cooperation projects will exceed 4,000.

By 2025, a 2.62 million-square-meter area will be developed as incubation carriers for scientific and technological innovation, two specialized maker spaces at the national level will be built, and 11 new research and development institutions at or above the municipal level will be established, according to the plan.

The city is expected to house more than 2,000 high-tech enterprises, and the output value of the high-tech industry is expected to account for 45 percent of the city's total industrial output above designated size by 2025. The number of overall invention patents per 10,000 people in Zhangjiagang is expected to reach 70, and the technology contract turnover in the city is expected to hit 6 billion yuan ($931.22 million) by 2025.