Scientific and technological innovation has become the engine of social and economic transformation in Wuxi. Over the last five years, the total output value of emerging industries in Wuxi has grown at an average annual rate of 15.1 percent, the Wuxi Daily reported.

Wuxi's achievements in scientific and technological innovation

The city's emerging industries, including internet of things (IoT), service outsourcing, supercomputing and digital film, have developed rapidly thanks to promotional systems and mechanisms for scientific and technological innovation.

The Wuxi government has been pouring more and more capital into R&D to encourage scientific and technological innovation. These influential measures have included launching risk offset mechanisms as well as tax deductions and exemptions. University-enterprise cooperation and the building of incubators for innovative startups have been greatly encouraged, along with the "Taihu Lake Talent Plan" to attract elites from home and abroad. The government has also extended policies to protect intellectual property.

The Wuxi-made Sunway TaihuLight claimed the crown of the world's fastest and most powerful supercomputer in June, 2016. The supercomputer was also announced as the winner of the 2016 ACM Gordon Bell Prize in Salt Lake City on Nov 17, 2016. Wuxi is also the birthplace of China's first manned deep-sea submersible Jiaolong. In addition, as China's only national innovative demonstration zone for IoT, more than half of the international standards of the field were established from the city.

Cases of scientific and technological innovation

Supercomputing is one of the important indices of a nation's scientific and technological strength. The Sunway TaihuLight has been widely utilized in more than 100 projects in the fields of meteorology, oceanography, aerospace, biological medicine and high-energy physics.

Integrated circuits are also one of Wuxi's traditional competitive industries. The Wuxi-based National Center for Advanced Packaging (NCAP China) has undertaken 16 scientific research projects for the national "973" and "863" programs. NCAP China has applied for 523 patents to date and provides R&D services for hundreds of enterprises as a pilot zone for the manufacturing innovation development.

Expert's voice about Wuxi's scientific and technological innovation

Though Wuxi is very competitive in many industries, it is very difficult for an enterprise to drive innovation with its own resources due to high costs. According to a government official of Wuxi's economy and information technology commission, the government should integrate the advantages of private enterprises, state-owned companies, research institutions and universities to promote the upgrade of emerging industry enterprises.