An aerial view of the Zhangjiagang Bonded Zone. [Photo/zjgonline.com.cn]
The Zhangjiagang Bonded Zone in Zhangjiagang, Suzhou, Jiangsu province has been pursuing innovation-driven development since its establishment 30 years ago.
In order to build a 100-billion-yuan ($14.34 billion) industrial cluster and three 50-billion-yuan industrial clusters by 2025, the zone has been making efforts to attract more innovative companies. In 2021 alone, construction on 35 projects worth a combined 26 billion yuan started, and 21 projects that represented over 16.5 billion yuan in investment were completed in the zone.
By the end of last year, the bonded zone was home to 167 high-tech companies and 104 of them were above the designated size. The companies' operating revenue totaled 40.18 billion yuan in 2021.
In the beginning of this year, the Zhangjiagang bonded zone made a plan to offer 100 million yuan per year from 2022 to 2025 to boost innovation in its enterprises. It has also introduced policies to reward companies that own intellectual property rights.
Jiangsu MultiDimension Technology Co, a magnetic sensor manufacturer in the zone that has 83 authorized invention patents, has received about 1 million yuan in subsidies to date, according to Xue Songsheng, president of the company.
The bonded zone has also built industrial parks and talent communities and set up funds to attract talents. By the end of 2021, the zone had five national-level talents and 43 provincial-level innovation and entrepreneurship talents.