WUXI, China, March 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 2, Wuxi Science and Technology Innovation Conference announced that in 2022, the number of science and technology-based SMEs in Wuxi exceeded 10,000 for the first time, reaching 10,651; the city's high-tech industry output value accounted for 50.4% of industrial output value, breaking the 50% watershed for the first time.

Wuxi's science and technology-based SMEs and high-tech enterprises reached 10,651 and 5,546, an increase of 2.87 times and 1.99 times respectively compared to data of 2019; the number of effective invention patents increased from 29,000 to 45,000, three-quarters of which were born in enterprises; the proportion of output value of high-tech industry and strategic emerging industry to industrial output value rose to 50.4% and 41.3%, up 4.8 and 13.2 percentage points respectively from 2019.

More enterprises are speeding up the promotion of R&D institutions to expand their capacity and take up the role as the main force of innovation. 161 new enterprise R&D institutions above the provincial level were established in 2022, a record high in previous years. Three enterprises, including ZKICME, FASTEN and NCAP China, were shortlisted for the provincial innovation construction pilot, and the number of shortlisted enterprises in Wuxi ranked first in Jiangsu Province.

Wuxi, located in the geometric center of the Yangtze River Delta, is taking advantage of location to highlight its center role in the Taihu Lake Science and Innovation Community. On February 21, a delegation from Wuxi went to Hong Kong to set up the Wuxi (Hong Kong) Science and Technology Innovation Center and sign 43 projects on talent, industry, innovation and finance.

"Wuxi will firmly promote enterprises to become the main body of innovation decision-making, R&D investment, scientific research organization and transformation of results, and empower the city of industry and commerce in the new era with the power of science and innovation." Du Xiaogang, Secretary of the Wuxi Municipal Committee of the CPC, said that in the current and future period, Wuxi will accelerate the cultivation of high-level innovative enterprises, through the implementation of a new round of innovative multiplication plan. By 2025, Wuxi will have 15,000 new science and technology-based SMEs, 10,000 new high-tech enterprises, and 1,300 new provincial-level or higher enterprises. It aims to build a first-class industrial innovation highland with international influence.