Recently, the main economic indicators of 13 districts and cities in Jiangsu in the first quarter were released, and Suzhou achieved the "double first" in the province with a GDP of 554.9 billion yuan and a growth rate of 7.9%. Not only in the province, Suzhou's economic growth rate is also in the leading position in 26 trillion cities nationwide.

As for Suzhou's economic performance in the current quarter, the Suzhou Survey Team of Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Statistics and the National Bureau of Statistics said that the city's economy continued to pick up and improve, production demand steadily improved, market expectations continued to improve, innovation and transformation continued to advance, and combined with the low base effect in the same period last year, the first quarter's economic operation achieved a good start.

Hou Xiangpeng, a researcher of the Economic Research Institute of the Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences, believes that this is due to the strong growth of Suzhou's industry and the recovery of foreign trade exports, which is the result of the recovery of domestic and foreign demand.

As a typical modern industrial city, Suzhou's total industrial output value exceeded 4.4 trillion yuan last year, ranking second only to Shenzhen in the country. According to the data, the added value of Suzhou's industries above designated size decreased by 2.7% year on year in the first quarter of last year and increased by 11% year on year in the first quarter of this year.

Suzhou is also a typical export-oriented city, and its dependence on foreign trade ranks fourth in China. In the first quarter of last year, Suzhou's total import and export volume was 541 billion yuan, down 15.4% year on year; By the first quarter of this year, Suzhou had achieved a total import and export value of 593.48 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.6%, accounting for 45.8% of the province's total import and export value in the same period, ranking fourth among the major foreign trade cities in China.

As the only economic center with a GDP of more than 2 trillion yuan in Jiangsu Province, Suzhou's economic performance at the beginning of the year is eye-catching. At the same time, this city has never relaxed its sense of responsibility and urgency to challenge the big beam.

At the "First Session of the New Year", Suzhou proposed to strive to form four trillion level leading industries of electronic information, high-end equipment, advanced materials and new energy in about three years, and promote GDP to reach 3 trillion yuan. Xu Tianshu, director of Suzhou Research Center of Changjiang Industrial Economics Research Institute and professor of Business School of Suzhou University of Science and Technology, attended the meeting. "To promote new industrialization, Suzhou has made it clear to accelerate the construction of the '1030' industrial system, that is, to build a modern industrial system consisting of 10 key industrial clusters and 30 key industrial chains," he said.

According to the statistical bulletin of Suzhou's national economic and social development in 2023, the output value of the two trillion level industries of electronic information and equipment manufacturing reached 1344.11 billion yuan and 1424.19 billion yuan respectively last year. The new energy industry is the next trillion level industry that Suzhou focuses on building.

Gu Haidong, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Suzhou Municipal Committee and executive vice mayor, once said that all regions are vigorously developing the new energy industry, and must enhance the sense of crisis and urgency, and actively learn from the road map of the development of new energy industry in sister cities. As we all know, Changzhou, also a city in southern Jiangsu, is making every effort to build a "new energy city", which has formed unique advantages in specific fields. It is understood that Changzhou will achieve an output value of 768.07 billion yuan in the new energy field in 2023, an increase of 15.0%.

What is the background of Suzhou's new energy industry? Data shows that by the end of 2023, the city has 637 new energy related enterprises, including 430 enterprises above designated size, achieving a total industrial output value of 357.642 billion yuan, up 20% year on year. At present, Suzhou has defined the "5+1" new energy industry development system of photovoltaic, wind power, smart grid, power battery and energy storage, hydrogen energy and smart energy.

"To maintain the development advantage, it is necessary to open up new tracks and create new momentum." Hou Xiangpeng said that in addition to the new energy industry, cross-border e-commerce will also be an important driving force in Suzhou.

The import and export scale of Suzhou ranks first in Jiangsu, accounting for nearly half of the whole province. Cross border e-commerce is Suzhou's weakness. Among the top ten foreign trade cities in 2023, Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce import and export volume will exceed 300 billion yuan, Shanghai, Ningbo and Guangzhou will exceed 200 billion yuan, and Suzhou will only be 12.47 billion yuan.

In April this year, Suzhou held a special cross-border e-commerce development conference and the city's cross-border e-commerce work promotion conference. The Three Year Action Plan for High Quality Development of China (Suzhou) Cross border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone (2024-2026) issued at the conference proposed that by 2026, the import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce should strive to reach 150 billion yuan.

It has increased more than 10 times in three years, which shows Suzhou's eagerness for cross-border e-commerce. The local media quoted a participant as saying, "One of the feelings of participating in the Suzhou Cross border E-Commerce Development Conference is particularly strong, that is, Suzhou's sense of crisis and urgency in this matter."

Economic ballast, the project is the king. In the first quarter, Suzhou signed 481 new projects worth more than 100 million yuan, started 301 new projects worth more than 100 million yuan, and put 248 new projects worth more than 100 million yuan into operation. Just after the May Day holiday, the local government held the "double comparison and double look" competition for the major projects in the second quarter, striving to achieve "high front, medium stability, and year-round progress".

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