Jiangsu Province is one of the most economically developed regions in china. The economy of the province has kept developing vigorously and new achievements have been made in various social undertakings in recent years, thanks to the deepening of reform, further implementation of the opening policy and advancing of science and technology. In 2000, the GDP of the province reached 858 billion RMB yuan, up 10.6% over the previous year and the fiscal revenue completed RMB 86.5 billion, an increase of 27.7% over the previous year. The comprehensive economic power of the province has therefore scaled a new height.

Science and technology

Jiangsu has strong scientific and technological research force and has always been known as “a land of outstanding personnel and wisdom”.

There are 2196 scientific and technological research organizations of all kinds in the province, 388 of which are state owned, 399 of which are institutions of universities and colleges, and 1406 of which and R&D centers of enterprises. There are also 18 State Key Labs, 54 state engineering technology research centers and 176 provincial Labs in Jiangsu province.

With a specialized and technical personnel of nearing 2 million, including 41 members of china Academy of science and 33 members of China academy of Engineering, The overall scientific and technological competitiveness of Jiangsu province tanks third in china next only to Beijing and Shanghai.

Up to new, international scientific and technological connection with more than 36 countries and areas and over 24 international experts organizations has been established. In recent years, the province has been strengthening its ties, cooperation and exchanging relationship with outside world so as to adapt to the new technology revolution and challenges from the new century.

Culture and Education

Jiangsu is the birthplace of the culture of Wu and Yue Dynasties as wall as the culture of the Yangtze River and the area has turned out numerous famous people generation intergeneration and is known as “a galaxy of talented people and cultures”. There are 97 public libraries in the province. Nnajing Library is the third biggest public library in the country. There are 76 museums in the province preserving an exhibiting a lot of precious cultural relics. Nanjing Museum holds the second position in its amount of collection.

The No.2 Historical Archives of china in Nanjing Keeps a lot if historical files of the Republic of China. Jiangsu also has fairly advanced public media and book press. 16 publishing houses of various kinds, over 100 kinds of newspapers are circulated and more than 400 kinds of magazines are published in the province. There are altogether 80 radio broadcasting stations, 21 broadcasting transmitting and relay stations in the Province, 57 TV stations, and 152 transmitting and relay station.

There are 71 full-time higher learning institutions in Jiangsu with 480,000 students and the enrollment ranks first in the country. There are 185 technical schools with nearly half a million students and 3675 middle schools with 3.7 million students. Nanjing University , Southeast University , Hehai University , Nangjing Aviation and Aerospace University and Nanjing Agricultural University are well known domestically and internationally.

The colleges and universities of Jiangsu Province have set up cooperation and exchanging relationship with over 300 foreign universities and research institutions. Since 1976, more than 24 universities has enrolled 25,000 foreign students from more than 100 countries and regions in the world. Also there are more than 30 sino-foreign institutions in Jiangsu .

Foreign Economic Relations and Trade

1.Foreign trade

Jiangsu Province ranks the third by the volume of foreign trade in the country. Since it started to handle its own import and export business independently in 1974, and during recent years in particular, its industrial and agricultural production has been developing rapidly as it further opens to the outside world. Active efforts have been made to adjust the composition of export commodities, to increase the varieties of goods, and to improve the quality and grade of the commodities. In the year of 2000, the total volume of import and export reached USD 45.6 billion, with USD 25.8 billion for export and USD 19.9 billion for import, showing an increase of 465 over the previous year. Altogether 2359 enterprises have been authorized to deal with import and export business, among which some are newly approved in addition to the existing provincial & municipal foreign trade corporations. Many foreign trade service institutions such as customhouses, commodity inspection bureau, banks and insurance companies are available in the province. At present, in addition to foreign trade corporations handing import and export business in each municipality directly under the jurisdiction of the provincial government, 64 county-level cities have also set up foreign trade enterprises to handle import and export directly. Jiangsu has established business relations with 180 countries and regions in the world, and set up its business affiliates in H.K, JAPAN, USA, Germany, U.K, Singapore, Togo, Chile, Panama and Poland, etc.

2.Utilization of foreign investment

The major form of utilizing foreign funds in Jiangsu Province is to absorb foreign direct investment to establish Sino-foreign equity joint ventures, contractual joint ventures and enterprises wholly foreign owned. From 1981 when the first joint venture was established in Jiangsu Province to 1990, 1112 foreign invested enterprises with a total of USD. 1.04 billion of foreign investments agreed in contracts were set up in the province. The year of 1991 saw the breakthrough of 1138 enterprises with foreign investment being established, and the figure surpassed the sum of the previous decade.

On the basis of the unprecedented progress in the period of the 8th five year plan. The quality of foreign investment has improved during the 9th five year plan period and basically realized the stride from being focused on extensiveness to quality and economic returns. The year of 2000 saw a development of 2645 enterprises with foreign investment of USD 10.61 billion of foreign investment agreed in contracts. By the end of 2000, altogether 40,612 projects with foreign investment of USD 79 billion agreed in contracts had been approved in the province, and the accumulated amount of paid in foreign investment had exceeded USD 46 billion. The amount of FDI agreed in contracts ranked the first and the paid in foreign investment ranked the second in the country during the 9th five-year plan Period. Investors from 120 countries and regions, among which some are world-famous consortia and multinational companies involving large-scale investment, have invested in Jiangsu Province . Most of the foreign investment focused on the projects of electronics/IT, light industry, textiles, chemical, machinery and other industries. In recent years, more foreign funds are being poured into energy development, communication, infrastructure and high-tech projects, real estate, land development, hotel and other service industries are on steady rise.

3.Economic and technological cooperation

Jiangsu Province has made gradual progress in overseas economic and technological cooperation. With the cooperation fields expanding incessantly and cooperation level further upgrading, the cooperation ranges from simple form of foreign aid to project contracting and labor service cooperation, from simple labor export to export of equipment, technology and intellect, from contracting engineering projects to establishing overseas businesses. The province has 142 corporations for international economic and technological cooperation, engaging in contracting engineering projects and labor service cooperation. In the year of 2000, the volume of contracted labor service reached 0.98 billion and its turnover achieved 0.8 billion, increased by 20.2% and 30.7% respectively, Jiangsu is expanding its fields of external cooperation, and had established various cooperative relationships with more than 120 countries and regions in the world.]

Manufacturing and Agriculture

Jiangsu is one of the birthplaces of China ’s modern industry, where modern light industry began to sprout at the beginning of this century.

Jiangsu has a wide range of industries with the processing industry, light industry, collectively owned enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises as the main body. The six mainstays of Jiangsu ’s industry are electronics, textiles, light industry, machinery, petrochemicals and building materials, and their output value makes up over 80% of the gross industrial output of the Province.

In recent years, textiles industry, light industry, machinery, foodstuffs and other traditional industries have been gradually renovated and new industries, such as electronic instrument, precision machinery, refined chemical industry and chemical fiber have been greatly developed. A number of large backbone enterprises have been established in Jiangsu Province . In 2000, Jiangsu Province kept stable growth in the industrial production and the added value in industry completed 384.7 billion RMB Yuan, increasing by 12.2% over the previous year.

Jiangsu Province enjoys exceptional advantages in its natural conditions. Though it occupies only 4.7% of the total cultivated land of the country, the province is one of China ’s most important regions in agricultural production. Agriculture in Jiangsu is well known for the intensive and meticulous farming. The southern area, the Taihu Lake area of the province, is always an important grain producing area of the province. The northern area of Jiangsu Province has become a new and developing production base of grain, cotton, edible oil, animal husbandry, poultry and fruit. In the year 2000, the added value in agriculture completed RMB 102.8 billion yuan, 45 more than that of the previous year.

The major agricultural products are grain, cotton and edible oil. The cotton produced in Jiangsu is famous for its high quality in the world and the production always ranks in the front row in the country, so does the production of rape, soybean and peanut, which are the main oil-bearing crops of the province.

The traditional sidelines of Jiangsu Province are animal husbandry. Poultry, fresh water fishery, and mulberry planting, silk worm raising and fruit trees cultivating, which are famous for their rich and excellent quality both at home and abroad. In recent years, Jiangsu Province has been further promoted over the whole province.

Service Industry

1.Finance

By the end of December 2000, the financial institutions of Jiangsu reported a savings balance of RMB 840.0 billion, a loan balance of RMB596.7 billion, and a foreign currency savings balance of $7.5 billion, As a province possessing all kinds of financial institutions, Jiangsu had 315 branches of solely state-owned commercial banks, 97 branches of policy banks, 55 branches of share-holding banks, 9 city commercial banks, 25 city-level city credit cooperatives, 30 county-level city credit cooperatives, 82 county-level rural credit cooperatives, 18 trust and investment companies, 1 financial leasing company, 2 financial companies, 2 branches of foreign-invested banks and 5representative offices of foreign-invested banks by the end of 2000. The province has growing financial transactions and an improving financial market. It has made good progress in banking, securities, insurance, trust, leasing and foreign currency and the framework of a modern financial system has basically taken shape. Most bank branches deal in foreign currencies and can provide foreign currency savings, loans, exchange, trade and non-trade settlement, credit investigation, consulting an testifying for foreign business people and foreign-invested enterprises.

2.Insurance

There are 9 insurance companies with 38 subsidiaries, 316 branches and 394 agencies operating in Jiangsu province. The insurance industry, with its scale ever expanding, is developing very fast and has set up commercial relationship with insurance institutions in more than 150 countries and districts.

3.Tourism

Charming and gentle scenery, delicate and beautiful mountains and rivers, long-standing history and Culture and prosperous urban economy have comprised unique tourist sources of Jiangsu Province richly endowed by nature, the famous ancient Grand Canal runs world’s third longest river the Yangtze River traverses the province from west to east. Natural scenes and human landscape add radiance and beauty to each other, and famous historic relics are spread throughout the province. The historical relics of the six ancient dynasties in Nanjing, the classical gardens in Suzhou, the mountains and waters of the Taihu lake in Wuxi, the ancient capital culture of Yangzhou, the historical remains of Qin and Han dynasties in Xuzhou, the charming and forest temples in Zhenjiang, the caves and bamboo forest are all places that both the Chinese and foreign tourists enjoy themselves so much as to forget to go home. 13 of its cities are among China ’s Excellent Tourist Cities and 13 of its tourist attractions are rated AAAA, all ranking first in the county.

Tourist facilities in Jiangsu are being perfected day by day. At present there are 408 star-rated touirist hotels and more than 68 intentional travel service agents, and 572 domestic travel agents providing various services. A number of tourist holiday camps at Taihu Lake in Suzhou & Wuxi have already been completed. The operation of 4 provincial tourist and holiday resorts is in full swing.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 [Origin:Jiangsu Government Website]