SND welcomes host of new projects

Development of Suzhou New District (SND) shows strong momentum, with a bulk of high-tech projects signed on April 18 in Beijing.

At a conference on investment in SND, 67 projects with a combined investment of 36 billion yuan ($5.2 billion) were inked. Science and technology innovation projects account for 70 percent of the total and 82 percent of the investment amount.

Seven of these projects, which are related to fields like photons, medical equipment and biopharmaceuticals, integrated circuits, and intelligent manufacturing, are each worth over 2 billion yuan.

According to the conference, these science and technology innovation projects will be key to stimulating innovation. Meanwhile, the new industrial projects will further extend, supplement and strengthen the industrial chain, and bring the development of the industrial innovation cluster to a new level. Modern service projects, on the other hand, will help more industries rise in the value chain.

In terms of investment entities, 11 projects are by central and State-owned enterprises, six are foreign-capital projects, two are projects by listed companies, and six are by industry-leading enterprises.

Specifically, there are 10 information technology projects, 15 medical equipment and biopharmaceutical projects, six integrated circuit projects, nine green low-carbon and new material projects, five high-end equipment manufacturing projects, nine financial industry projects, and 10 other modern service industry projects.

During the conference, officials announced that the 2023 China (Suzhou) World Photonics Industry Development Conference will be held in SND on May 29.

This conference will focus on attracting new projects, accelerating the convergence of global innovation resources in the field of photons, and form a cluster for technology, talent and capital.

The photon industry is one of the most important industries in the 21st century. As the venue of this conference, Suzhou has a solid foundation in the photon industry and is a strong driving force for enterprise development.

At present, the scale of the photon industry in the city has exceeded 360 billion yuan, of which the core industry has an output value of over 60 billion.

In last August, Suzhou authorities proposed the construction of the Taihu Lake Photon Center, which they envision will become a world-class photonic innovation center in the future.

SND currently has more than 200 photon-related enterprises with an industrial scale of over 60 billion yuan ($8.7 billion).

Wanghaixin@Chinadaily.com.cn