Founded in 1994 under the approval of the State Council, Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) is an important economic cooperation project between Chinese and Singapore government.
With a permanent resident population of some 807,800, SIP covers a total area of 278 square kilometers, of which 80 sq km is for the China-Singapore Cooperative Zone.
It's also a traffic hub, accessible to Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway, Suzhou-Shanghai Expressway, Suzhou-Jiaxing-Hangzhou Expressway, as well as Shanghai-Nanjing Railway, Shanghai-Nanjing Intercity Railway, and Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.
SIP has been adapting to, managing and steering the new normal of its economy and deepening its supply-side reform in recent years. As a result, SIP's GDP in 2017 reached 235 billion yuan ($34.06 billion), a year-on-year increase of 7.2 percent. The total export-import volume was 85.8 billion US dollars, increasing by 15.5 percent over the previous year. The actual utilized foreign investment hit 930 million dollars, while the fixed-assets investment was 47.6 billion yuan.
The total retail sales of consumer goods reached 45.5 billion yuan, with a growth rate of 12 percent year-on-year. The per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents was 66,000 yuan, increasing by 7.7 percent over the previous year.
Official website: