A view of Rugao in Nantong, Jiangsu province. [Photo/Nantong Daily]

The GDP of Rugao has exceeded 100 billion yuan ($13.99 billion) in the past decade, increasing from 59.01 billion yuan in 2012 to 143.24 billion yuan in 2021.

Evaluation of the city's business environment has been at the forefront in Jiangsu province for many years, and the number of market entities located there has increased by 154,604 in the past 10 years.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), Rugao Port Logistics Park was listed as one of the top 50 logistics parks in China. The total value of the city's import and export exceeded $16 billion. The port's handling capacity and container throughput increased by 20 percent and 75.5 percent annually.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), Rugao has been focusing on building six manufacturing industrial chains, namely new electronic equipment, high-end complete sets of equipment and key parts, automobiles and parts, new materials, electronic information and life and health.

Currently, the six industrial chains account for more than 80 percent of the city's industrial scale, and the city is home to 316 high-tech enterprises, a significant increase of 750 percent compared with the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10).

In addition, official statistics show that the per capita disposable income of rural residents in the city rose from 14,210 yuan in 2014 to 19,857 yuan in 2021. In the first quarter of this year alone the figure was 10,046.6 yuan, an increase of 7.4 percent, the highest in Nantong.