Suzhou, Germany manufacturing intertwined for 30 years

Siemens Electrical Products China & East Asia Headquarters and SND sign an agreement on deepening strategic cooperation. [Photo/2500sz.com]

When the first German company set up operations in Suzhou in the early 1990s, the "southern Jiangsu model" was becoming a benchmark for the entire country to follow.

Today, Suzhou has developed into a hub for German cooperation. Apart from Taicang and Kunshan being home to more than 100 German companies, Suzhou New District, which is located at the city's northwestern corner, is also an emerging home to German giants.

Siemens, a high-tech enterprise dedicated to the industrial, infrastructure, transportation, and medical sectors, was the first to dig the "gold".

Back in 1994, Siemens built its first plant in SND, and in 2021, it built the Chinese headquarters of its electrical business in SND and a year later upgraded it to its China and East Asia HQ.

It was the first China and East Asia HQ of a global top 500 company in Suzhou, showing Siemens' confidence and recognition of the city's industrial development, talent reserves, and research capabilities.

Take the 3WT frame circuit breaker manufactured by Siemens' SND plant as an example. The module is expected to be applied at every high-rise building and railway in Suzhou. It took only a few years for the product to go public and achieve localized manufacturing.

Han Zhenhua, chief of the HQ, said Siemens has given much freedom to the Chinese team in product design, research and marketing, enabling more customized products to access the Chinese market and contributing more Chinese intelligence to the world.

"Our research team has also expanded from the original 10 members in 2003 to the current nearly 200," Han added.