(CFP Photo)

The number of small and medium-sized enterprises specialized in science and technology in Wuxi City reached 10,651 in 2022, exceeding 10,000 for the first time, according to the Wuxi Science and Technology Innovation Conference held recently.

The output value of the city's high-tech industry accounted for 50.4% of the total industrial output value, also the first time it hit more than half.

In the past three years, Wuxi has reduced and exempted a total of 37.92 billion yuan of taxes for enterprises. The number of valid invention patents increased from 29,000 to 45,000, of which 75% came from enterprises. The proportion of output value of high-tech industry and strategic emerging industry in total industrial output value rose to 50.4% and 41.3% respectively, up by 4.8 and 13.2 percentage points respectively, from 2019.

Since last year, Wuxi has also established a sound mechanism for cultivating high-tech enterprises in a tiered manner, and continued to support innovative enterprise clusters. Wuxi also had 24 enterprises newly recognized in the province's program to cultivate innovative leading enterprise. The city's 14 enterprises were successfully listed on the sci-tech innovation board (STAR market) at the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Wuxi ranked among China's top ten cities with the largest number of companies listed on the exchange, and S&T contributed to 68% of the city's growth last year.

Du Xiaogang, secretary of the CPC Wuxi Municipal Committee, said that the city will accelerate the cultivation of high-level innovative enterprises and increase the number of technology SMEs to 15,000. The city also plans to establish 4,000 R&D institutions at or above the municipal level, and accelerate the building of a first-class industrial innovation hub.