[Photo by Li Min/China Daily]

Innovation strengths

Xinwu is flexing its technological muscle, with the output value of its high-tech industry accounting for 66 percent of Wuxi's total and 3.76 percent of its GDP is spent on R&D, both ranking top among the city's districts.

The sectors of IoT, IC, software, big data, cloud computing and AI have all reported high growth in revenue in recent years.

To date, the district is home to 837 small and medium-sized businesses recognized as national-level tech-driven enterprises and 620 high-tech companies.

At the same time, 14 business incubators, three tech-startup accelerators, 21 R&D institutions and 21 national research centers are helping to improve local innovation capacities.

Organizations and individuals in the district have been granted 689,000 patents, enabling the invention patent ownership per 10,000 people to reach 126.

Such innovation strength relies on a pool of 275,000 high-level professionals in the district.

Of them, experts and specialists have started more than 770 businesses, founding startup teams of over 5,000 people. The district has brought in and fostered 115 national-level experts, 16 professionals recruited in the Innovative Talents Promotion Plan of the Ministry of Science and Technology, 135 provincial-level experts, 17 teams and 65 PhD holders.

Wuxi National Hi-Tech District has won four national honors for attracting and fostering professionals.

Key research facilities in the district include eight national science and technology incubators, five national mass innovation spaces, two national enterprise technology centers, a national engineering technology research center, and the Wuxi High-Tech Entrepreneurship Service Center have been granted the status as the National Public Service Platform.

In addition, a widespread transportation network, which covers waterways, land, air and rail, adds the appeal of the district to investors.

Sunan Shuofang International Airport has launched more than 40 direct flights to Japan, Singapore, South Korea, as well as China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taipei among other cities.

The Shanghai-Nanjing high-speed railway has three stations in Wuxi, one of them located in Wuxi National Hi-Tech District. It takes just 30 minutes to travel to Shanghai and 4.5 hours to Beijing.

Wuxi plans to build eight light rail lines, half of them set to run through the high-tech district.