00:00And let's get more now on Suzhou's economic clout.
00:03Shaolin Chen is head of international at Crane Chair.
00:07Shaolin, thanks for joining us today.
00:09Suzhou has become a hub of high-end manufacturing.
00:12Which sectors are really driving its economic momentum?
00:17Thank you for having me on your program again.
00:19This is a very interesting city, like your previous participants mentioning.
00:25This is a very beautiful city.
00:27This city is known for preservation and obviously is developing and driving to become the key contributor of China's growth
00:35in the recent years.
00:37Particularly in electronic information, automobiles and special equipment, particularly on high-end manufacturing.
00:46In recent AI and manufacturing combination as a new growth driver for China,
00:52this city definitely wins by miles in these kind of sectors to grow.
00:57In 2024, I think Suzhou literally produced nearly 1.4 trillion yuan in electronic information as revenue growth for just
01:06a city.
01:07And if you think about high-tech manufacturing for the city, it also contributes nearly 2.6 trillion yuan.
01:15So you can see in the growth in number that this city is definitely catching up.
01:19Not only in the preservation as a very beautiful city to live in, you know, for years, hundreds of years
01:25in China,
01:26but also now become a tech hub to welcome the modernization of China is preparing for the next phase of
01:33the country's growth.
01:35Suzhou has long attracted international companies and foreign investment.
01:39What makes it so appealing to global businesses?
01:43It was a couple of reasons.
01:45One is the logistic.
01:46It is very, very well connected within China.
01:50Also, it has a very fast logistic connecting with the international world.
01:54It's only, you know, not very long.
01:56I feel, you know, probably an hour or so away from Shanghai.
01:59You can imagine if you want to, another city is slightly lower in the expense of living costs.
02:06And Suzhou is a beautiful city to be.
02:08And it's very close to Shanghai and not very far traveling even within China.
02:13Also, it's scale.
02:14It's a very large scale in terms of lands, in terms of supports, in terms of policy, tax incentive, you
02:20name it.
02:21It's a city that is trying to and welcoming international investments.
02:24In fact, there's 17,000, over 17,000 of enterprise, actually private enterprise, international, host, you know, headquarter in Suzhou
02:35today.
02:35We've just been looking at some stunning footage of the city's gardens and its rich history.
02:41How does it balance keeping that tradition with being a modern economic powerhouse?
02:46This is the part of the secret, you know, success of Suzhou has been able to achieve.
02:52At the same time, they call themselves a preservation in development and development in preservation.
02:58It just shows how they balance from the traditional culture of that also to produce and connect with the rest
03:05of the world.
03:05It's absolutely beautiful for the city to be.
03:08And also the city's governors are doing everything they can to attract foreign investors to come to this place
03:13and then give them very incentive policies for them to continue to grow.
03:17I think this is going to be a very unique economic value that Suzhou brings forward to international investors to
03:24say,
03:24a nice place to be, a nice place to live with, also a very modernized city that's allowing to connect
03:31with the rest of the world.
03:33Charlene Chen, many thanks.
03:35Charlene Chen, head of international at Shane Krez.
03:37And for our next stop in our weekly China City Series, we'll be heading to Wenzhou in Zhejiang province,
03:44a city driven by grassroots business activity.
03:48Back to you, Sally.
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