Suzhou New District (CFP Photo)

Suzhou New District (SND), one of the first national high-tech zones, made a new milestone in development as a number of agreements were signed during the SND Medical Device Industry Development Conference on August 21.

The CAS Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Soochow University and Suzhou Collaborative Innovation Medical Robot Institute agreed to strengthen strategic cooperation.

Meanwhile, the Affiliated Suzhou Science and Technology Town Hospital of Nanjing Medical University and Suzhou Hybiome Biomedical Engineering also inked the agreement.

Such new deals showcased the increasing collaboration among research institutes, universities, hospitals and enterprises in SND, an important sign of new effective working mechanism to realize innovation breakthroughs in medical device industry.

Regarding biomedicine as the "No. 1 Industry", Suzhou is home to more than 400 medical device-related companies and it also hosts Southeast University Medical Device Research Institute and the new branch of Jiangsu Medical Device Inspection Institute. The city has also established three venture capital funds and one industry guidance fund.

According to SND’s three-year action plan and ten-year plan for the development of the medical device industry, the district will improve the sector’s output value to exceed 50 billion yuan by 2022 and 80 billion yuan by 2025.

The conference also unveiled a work station of the Chinese Society of Biomedical Engineering to promote the integrated scientific, technological, and economic development in the region.

The new platform will serve as an important talent pool of biomedical engineering experts, a think tank for enterprise decision-making and transformation, and a facilitator of cooperation among research, education, and application.