(Photo/Zhou Tianqi)

In launching the national entrepreneurship and innovation week on October 19, Jiangsu Province also reported its progress in the initiative.

Among the achievements, the province’s spending on research and development (R&D) hit 2.85% of its GDP. The number of invention patents owned by 10,000 people was 36.14, and technology contributed to 65.1% of the economic growth.

For industrial enterprises above designated size, companies in the two categories - new and high-tech industries - accounted for 37.8% and 46.5% of the total output value respectively.

Jiangsu is also home to six national-level advanced clusters in the field of equipment for smart grid, software and IT services, Internet of Things, machinery, nano materials and carbon materials, 24% of the country’s total.

The province has also built 10 national-level demonstration bases to galvanize entrepreneurship and innovation efforts and 128 provincial-level bases for the same drive, ranking first place in China.

By the end of September, Jiangsu had 13.385 million market entities, among which 2.05 million were registered this year.

In the first three quarters of 2021, Jiangsu provided subsidies of 265 million yuan in 109,600 cases and the guaranteed loans involved a total of 8.834 billion yuan.

Amid the support for entrepreneurship and innovation, the province saw the creation of over 1.04 million new jobs in the first nine months, up 7.97% year on year.