China has witnessed enormous changes, especially in its economic development, since the start of its opening-up and reform campaign 30 years ago. The propelling forces behind the changes are numerous and one of them is, no doubt, China's close cooperation with other countries.
At the beginning, cooperation came mainly through overseas investment in Chinese enterprises, and joint ventures.
Yet Suzhou Industrial Park blazed the path of cooperation at the government level and is surely a successful model that can be duplicated in other areas of China with modifications in accordance with the local environment and conditions.
What can others borrow from the experience of SIP?
SIP is the biggest cooperative project between the governments of China and Singapore and saw its debut in February 1994. Sitting beside Jinji Lake in the eastern suburb of Suzhou, a 2,500-year-old city in East China's Jiangsu province, SIP covers an area of 80 sq k. with a population of about 600,000.
Over the past 14 years, SIP has experienced a fast development with the support from both governments and its own innovative endeavor. Its chief economic indices all grow at an annual rate of around 30 percent, which is much higher than the average national rate.
The success of an action, to a large extent, depends on good planning. This is certainly true of SIP. City planning experts, with good experiences from the world, made the blueprint for SIP. It is to be built into a new town of Suzhou with sections of industry, commerce and residence clearly demarcated.
In SIP, one never finds the common landscape of factories scattered among residential areas as in many other cities in China. This clearly accounts for the rapid increase of population in the area.
SIP has made great contributions to employment. Over the years, 14,000 companies and enterprises have settled in SIP, creating 270,000 jobs. The increase of employment rate is a great help to building a harmonious society.
Yet harmony between environment and man is also what is needed to maintain a sustainable social and economic development.
Examples of damages to the environment brought about by industrial development are countless, especially in the early stages of development.
It is not uncommon that in some areas, local governments seek high economic returns at the expense of environment.
However, this is certainly not what SIP does in its development. On the contrary, it has paid meticulous attention to environmental protection while attracting investment.
It is always the first prerequisite for any investment in SIP to meet with environmental protection standards.
Though many of the enterprises and companies in SIP are environment-friendly, strict supervision of environmental protection is also exercised at all levels, from the approval of investment projects to production.
The protection of the environment can also be attributed to the structure of industries. Such burgeoning industries as electronics, biopharmaceuticals and new materials have become the pillar industries of SIP.
These industries have helped SIP to yield a GDP of 83.6 billion yuan in 2007, accounting for 15 percent of the city's total whereas its population and area only occupy 4 percent of the city's total.
So far, 76 of Fortune 500 companies have invested in 115 projects in SIP, of which 89 have an investment value of over $100 million.
Economic development is of course what a government needs to promote. But a healthy and sustainable one is more important.
Source: China Daily
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