A bird's eye-view of Shishan Business Innovation Zone. [Photo/WeChat account: snd-szgxqfb]
The Shishan Business Innovation Zone, which occupies an area of 31.3 square kilometers and has a population of nearly 300,000, was officially approved on Oct 28. It is presently home to over 40,000 companies, of which five are listed in the main boards of Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, one is listed in the science and technology innovation board, 16 are engaged in the New Over the Counter (OTC) Market, and 702 are companies with foreign capital. There are also 192 Japan invested companies and 156 from Europe and the United States.
From January to October, the zone's revenue in the general public budgets reached 4.36 billion yuan ($662.3 million), a 24-percent year-on-year increase.
The zone boasts quality educational resources with 41 schools spanning basic to higher education.
The zone was ranked as a national civilized unit, a provincial demonstration cluster for producer services, Suzhou's pioneer in leading high-quality development, and a demonstration zone for industry-university-research cooperation.
Planning of the zone is centered on the Shishan Road Central Business District and is supported by the Sino-foreign innovation and intelligent manufacturing park, the sci-tech and producer services park, the listed companies headquarters park, the Hengshan high and new tech industrial park, and the Suzhou international education park.
The zone has developed expertise in intelligent manufacturing, sci-tech and producer services, and finance and insurance, and is dedicated to sharpening its advantage in emerging industries such as new energy, intelligent safe-guard system, and intelligent healthcare.
