The recently released 2024 high-tech enterprise certification list revealed that 1,054 enterprises in Kunshan were newly certified, marking the third consecutive year of certifying over 1,000 high-tech enterprises, which brings Kunshan’s total to over 3,300. Kunshan ranks first in Suzhou in terms of the number of applications, certifications, net additions, and total high-tech enterprises. 

“Being recognized as a high-tech enterprise is a testament to a company’s dedication to R&D and innovation, enhancing its core competitiveness and brand value. It serves as both encouragement and motivation for growth,” said Zhou Yedong, head of Suzhou Maida Testing Technology Co., Ltd., one of the newly certified high-tech enterprises. Founded four years ago, the company specializes in evaluating the service performance of new materials and has contributed to drafting one national standard and three group and industry standards and filing 12 patents and four software copyrights. 

High-tech enterprises in Kunshan, coming a long way as late comers, have become critical driver of innovation. All of Jiangsu’s gazelle enterprises and 80.95% of its unicorn enterprises (including potential ones) in Kunshan originated from high-tech enterprises. This success is largely attributed to Kunshan’s initiative to cultivate high-tech enterprises through an innovation ecosystem that nurtures technology-based SMEs and enterprises in the high-tech enterprise cultivation pool. Kunshan has fostered an innovation-driven enterprise team with high-tech enterprises as major players, and gazelle, unicorn, and publicly listed enterprises as benchmarks. Enterprises meeting high-tech certification criteria will be categorized as candidates for Class I key cultivation and undergo evaluation at district (town) and municipal level and by experts. All these efforts have effectively boosted application rates.