A view of the north shore of Jinji Lake in Suzhou Industrial Park on December 19, 2024. (CFP)

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the results of the 2024 evaluation of 178 national high-tech zones across the country. Nine zones from Jiangsu are among the top 50, placing the province first nationally.

The nine zones are Suzhou Industrial Park (4th), Nanjing High-Tech Zone (9th), Wuxi High-Tech Zone (17th), Suzhou New District (18th), Changzhou High-Tech Zone (30th), Kunshan High-Tech Zone (31st), Wujin High-Tech Zone (39th), Jiangyin High-Tech Zone (43rd), and Nantong High-Tech Zone (47th).

The evaluation encompassed several key aspects. Suzhou Industrial Park ranked third and fourth in terms of "intensity of enterprise R&D expenditure" and "business environment," respectively. Nanjing High-Tech Zone was among the top five in "total industrial output value," "revenue," and "intensity of enterprise R&D expenditure".

According to the provincial Science and Technology Department, Jiangsu currently boasts 18 national-level high-tech zones, the most among province-level regions. Despite occupying only 6.5% of the province’s land area, the national and provincial high-tech zones contribute over 30% of the regional GDP, one-third of the total exports, and 55.4% of the high-tech industry output value.