City Introduction of Jiangsu, China: Wuxi

Wuxi

Major Economic Indicators (2007)

Source: Wuxi Economic and Social Development Report 2007

Introduction

Wuxi is located in the south-east of Jiangsu Province in the Yangtze River Delta. Bordering the Taihu Lake, Wuxi neighbors Changzhou to the west, and Suzhou to the east. It is 128 km from Shanghai to the east, and 130 km from Nanjing to the west. It takes a mere two hours to travel from Wuxi to Shanghai, and one-and-a-half hours to Nanjing by way of the Nanjing-Shanghai Railway. The Beijing-Shanghai Railway just passes through the city.

The Beijing-Shanghai Highway, the Tongjiang-Sanya Highway and the Shanghai-Chengdu Highway all intersect in the city of Wuxi, while the Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway, the Zhejiang-Shanghai-Jiangsu Expressway, the No. 312 National Highway and the No. 104 National Highway run directly across the city. China's largest port, Shanghai Port, is just 165 km away; Jiangyin Port, however, is even closer at a mere 38 km away. The Wuxi Airport, situated a distance of 14 km from the city center, offers daily flights to Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and other major cities. The Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the Shanghai Hongqiao Airport and the Nanjing Lukou Airport are all within two-hours’ drive from Wuxi.

Economic Features

In 2007, the GDP of Wuxi grew 15.3% from the previous year to RMB 385.8 billion, ranking second after Suzhou in Jiangsu and ninth overall in China. It formed with Suzhou and Changzhou the "Su-Xi-Chang Area", the most advanced region in Jiangsu. The total GDP of the three cities amounted to RMB 1143.8 billion, making up over 44.7% of the GDP of Jiangsu.

The city of Wuxi is dominated by heavy industries. In 2007, the added value from heavy industries rose 21.8% year-on-year to RMB 149.5 billion, accounting for more than 75% of the total from the industry sector. The private economy is very active in Wuxi. In 2007, the private sector contributed to over 82.2% of the industrial output from enterprises with designated size and above.

The major heavy industries in Wuxi include machinery, metallurgy, and the petrochemical industries. Major light industries consist of electronics and textiles. The machinery industry generated RMB 257.8 billion industrial output in 2007, taking up 24.2% of the city's total. The gross industrial output from the electronics industry hit RMB 131.3 billion, accounting for 12.3% of the city's total.

In 2008, Wuxi has won approval from China's National Development and Reformation Commission to be the state-level micro-electronic high-tech industrial base, and will be the second-largest one after the base located in Shanghai.

Tourism plays an important role in the city’s service sector. Attracted by the varied natural scenery and cultural relics in Wuxi, over 34 million tourists visited the city in 2007. The tourism revenue amounted to RMB 44.6 billion by the end of 2007, accounting for nearly 15.7% of Jiangsu’s total tourism revenue.

The foreign-trade value in Wuxi has climbed up 30.5% year-on-year to US$51.1 billion, accounting for 14.6% of Jiangsu's total, while the export value rose 36.8% year-on-year to US$29.3 billion. Specifically, the export value of mechanical and electronic products was US$17.1 billion, occupying 58.36% of the total. The major foreign-trade partners are Japan, the E.U. and the U.S., all of whose foreign-trade value with Wuxi reached US$9.2 billion, US$8 billion and US$7 billion respectively.

Wuxi attracted contractual foreign investment of US$5.4 billion in 2007. The utilized FDI in the city was US$2.7 billion, of which 45.5% went to the Wuxi New District. There are seventy-three Fortune 500 enterprises set up in Wuxi.