How can a city accelerate economic growth and stand out on the new journey of modern development? Nantong has proposed to build an edge in technological innovation, create a first-class innovation ecology, and develop a regional science and technology innovation center with international profile and national influence that leads in the Yangtze River Delta region. The ultimate goal is to ensure the city's high-quality and sustainable development after its GDP exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($139.63 billion) in 2022.

A manufacturing city of quality

Nantong is the birthplace of China's industry, known as the "city of industry," particularly in manufacturing, the driver of local economic growth. Nantong is expected to transform from a "manufacturing city of quantity" to a "manufacturing city of quality" to revitalize its splendor as the country's industrial birthplace.

Nantong will establish a modern system that incorporates competitive manufacturing industries and strategic emerging industries, cultivate environmentally friendly businesses, and build a clustering development pattern. The city focuses on the development of five industrial clusters – shipbuilding and marine engineering, high-end textiles, new materials, new-generation information technology, and high-end equipment, accelerates the development of strategic emerging industries such as biomedicine, new energy, and environmental protection, and develops future industries, including 5G, the internet of things, and third-generation semiconductors.

Digital economy

Digital economy, a major economic mode following historically the agricultural and industrial economies, is considered a strategic emerging industry and has now become a national strategy in China. Nantong has formulated and implemented policies and measures concerning the digital economy and related fields to achieve stable and fast progress.

In the future, Nantong will improve its technological innovation capacity and industrial competitiveness and develop a digital economy highlighting big data, the industrial internet, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and 5G communications to build itself into a well-known hub of digital industry in Jiangsu, a first-class model of digital element agglomeration in the Yangtze River Delta, and a leading Chinese highland in digital society.

Eight river-crossing bridges over the Yangtze River

The Shanghai-Suzhou-Nantong Yangtze River Bridge will make Nantong accessible to all other cities in South Jiangsu. For years, Nantong has been striving to create a transportation network that is interconnected with cities across the Yangtze River.

2022 marked the commencement of the construction of three river-crossing bridges, that is, the Suzhou-Taizhou-Nantong Bridge, the Haimen-Taicang Yangtze River Tunnel, and the Beiyanjiang High-speed Railway. In addition, the environmental impact assessment of the Sutong Second Yangtze River Bridge project has been initiated and the Chonghai Bridge project is under preliminary research and planning. The eight bridges are on average 20 kilometers from one another along the Nantong section of the Yangtze River.

Editor-in-chief: Yu Lei

Editor: Wang Yun

Photo by Gu Yao

Translated by Wang Haifei from the Shanghai Waiyuan Translation Agency