Home to a population of 568,000 and covering an area of 258 kms, the Suzhou National New & High-Tech Industrial Development Zone (SND) was founded in 1990 with the purpose of facilitating the transition of foreign businesses into China.
Along with SIP (Singapore Industrial Park), the zone is one of Suzhou's two major industrial parks focused on foreign-invested businesses.
More specifically, the park's target manufacturing industries are as follows:
Bio-medical
"New” Energy
Advanced equipment manufacturing
Environmental business
High-tech manufacturing
"New” materials processing
Our visit to SND included a presentation from Ms. Juliet Zhu, Vice General Manager of the zone, covering a number of the key statistics of Suzhou city and the SND in particular.
She told us that SND currently has a total of 1534 foreign-invested companies, including 53 Fortune 500 companies.
The majority of these companies are Taiwanese and Japanese (at 33% and 27% respectively) with American and European organisations making up a large proportion of the remaining 50%.
Other Interesting facts from Ms. Zhu's presentation included Suzhou's position as China's second city in terms of both foreign direct investment and industrial output - placing Suzhou behind only neighbouring megalopolis Shangha in these metrics.
This is all the more remarkable given the disparity in both population and facilities between the two cities.
Ms Zhou also gave us some insight into the policies SND used to attrac t both companies and skilled workers to reside in the zone.
There are a number of advantages gained by foreign businesses that choose to take up a presence in the SND zone. These include:
Transportation - there are many transport links from and to the park including connections to the Yangtze River, the East China Sea, to Nanjing (the capital of Jiangsu Province) and also Shanghai. Its close proximity to Shanghai is also a great advantage.
Human Resources - there are many universities in Jiangsu Province and as a result, many local graduates who can enrol to work in the park.
Living Amenities - within the zone are international schools, international hospitals, sports centres, houses, serviced apartments, shopping malls, car hire operators and even an amusement park.
There is also well-developed local infrastructure, plus there are other, more subtle, advantages to being a part of SND.
For example, the park has arranged for the China Customs Service to process park-resident companies' shipments 7 days a week / 24 hours a day so these companies can receive deliveries and make shipments at any time of the day or night.
One of the most interesting of SND policies is their granting of a Suzhou “Hukou” or right of abode certificate to workers with desired skills - regardless of their place of origin within China.
In other Chinese cities, the acquisition of this “right of abode” is very difficult indeed for those not born in the locality, as it also confers major health insurance and housing subsidy benefits to its holder.
Ms Zhou then took us on a brief tour around the SND, pointing out notable businesses and landmarks.
