Suzhou's economic future remains bright as it raises its global competitiveness

SITUATED along China's famous Grand Canal, Suzhou has been, for most of its history, an important centre of business in the country. In the mid-19th century, as Shanghai rose in economic dominance, Suzhou gradually took a back seat to the metropolitan city. However, over the last 20 years, government policies and initiatives, as well as Suzhou's long-established economic and industrial fundamentals, saw it return to prominence as one of China's major commercial hubs. Its success, after a century of being a sleepy backwater west of Shanghai, is one of the promising stories of China's economic miracle.

China is restructuring its economy and pursuing high-value-added innovation across its major sectors, including manufacturing. With the intention to transform China into a global high-tech manufacturing leader on par with Germany, the Chinese government launched the "Made in China 2025" initiative in 2015 to move the country up the manufacturing value chain. This will be done by upgrading the country's industrial base, fostering growth in key high-tech sectors, and weaning the country off foreign imports of technology components such as integrated circuits.

On the cusp of China's economic paradigm shift, Suzhou has leveraged its strong industrial and manufacturing base successfully to lead the way as China transforms its economy. Home to China's second-largest manufacturing sector, Suzhou is also one of the largest high-tech manufacturing hubs for LCD panels and integrated circuits, and hosts a number of large international and domestic electronics manufacturers. Nearly a third of all Fortune 500 companies, including Samsung, UPS and Motorola, have had operations in Suzhou since 2014.