In 2023, acting on the guiding principles of the important speeches by General Secretary Xi Jinping on the work of Jiangsu, Jiangsu has implemented the major requirement of becoming the pacesetter and leading by example in advancing Chinese modernization. The province has concentrated its efforts on critical reform tasks in key areas and at crucial links, took solid steps to promote higher-standard opening up, and contributed to the creation of a new development pattern of the country.

Continue Reform Endeavors

Reforms in various areas have been deepened. We have advanced the building of a high-standard market system, and deepened reforms in public finance, taxation, investment and financing. Jiangsu was among the first in China to facilitate the registration and certification of real estate with mixed state-collective ownership. It also took the lead in carrying out the pilot program of integrated approval of land and forest use. We have adopted a systemic approach to the new round of reform advancement on state-owned enterprises, and worked to facilitate the reorganization and integration of five province-owned trading companies. Benefited by targeted preferential policies, the private economy has further expanded.

We have continued our efforts to improve the business environment. We have rolled out two lists consisting of 79 reform measures to implement the national pilot program of business environment improvement and the reforms with greater scope for self-decision. We have stepped up efforts to improve policies, market conditions, administrative services, legal support and cultural environment by implementing the provincial-wide “1+5+13+N” regulations and systems. As a result, Jiangsu has been recognized “province with best reputation in business environment” by private enterprise for five straight years. As of the end of 2023, the number of business entities reached 14.524 million. Additionally, we have streamlined administrative processes by offering 162 types of inter-provincial administrative services and making 152 types of administrative services accessible online in the Yangtze River Delta. Our pilot project for the digital yuan has exceeded RMB 45 billion in scale and has been implemented in all 25 scenarios.

Promote Higher-standard Opening up

We have made steady progress in building an open economy. We have worked out an action plan to build Jiangsu into a two-way open hub with global appeal and advanced the building of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) hub. Imports and exports reached RMB 5.25 trillion, and those between Jiangsu and BRI partner countries made up 42.9% of the total. A total of 49.7% of Jiangsu’s exports were made by private companies. Cross-border e-commerce witnessed an increase of 12.3% in its exports. Both the export volume of new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products and the export value of goods with exporter-issued RCEP certificate of origin ranked first in China.

A total of 3,481 foreign-invested enterprises have been newly established throughout the year. Paid-in FDI remained the largest in China at USD 25.34 billion. Fourteen projects have been listed as national landmark major foreign investment projects. Over 98% of the 113 reform pilot tasks in the overall plan for the construction of the China (Jiangsu) Pilot Free Trade Zone has been implemented and 379 institutional innovations have been developed, of which 25 have been replicated and promoted nationwide. Foreign capital utilization in the manufacturing sector and in hi-tech industries as well as its plough-back all ranked amongst the top in China. Suzhou Industrial Park has bagged championship eight times in a row in the comprehensive assessment of national economic and development zones.

We continued to expand foreign exchanges. We hosted state-level foreign-related activities including the first China-Europe Railway Express Cooperation Forum, the 5th China-US Sister Cities Conference, the Global Public Security Cooperation Forum (Lianyungang), the 2nd China-Pacific Island Countries Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers Meeting, and the International Industrial Investment Cooperation Activities·Jiangsu Event. We successfully held the China-California Business Forum as the Guest Province of Honor. A host of characteristic activities were staged, such as Jiangsu Tour for Diplomatic Envoys to China, the Roundtable Conference on Cooperation and Exchange among Friendship Cities along China-Europe (Asia) Railway Express Lines, and the Achievements Exhibition of the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone on the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, etc. Jiangsu has established 363 pairs of friendship sisters with 67 countries. The 13th Commerce Summit of Jiangsu-Macao and Portuguese-speaking countries and the 13th Jiangsu Hong Kong and Macao Youth Development Forum were convened. The Provincial Government and the Hong Kong SAR Government signed an agreement on deepening exchanges and cooperation.