A jewel in Suzhou's crown

Elevators, escalators and other machines are made by SJEC Corp in Suzhou Industrial Park. Photos by Sheng Zheng / For China Daily

The Chinese saying "Up above is heaven and down below are Suzhou and Hangzhou" is often cited when talking of the two Chinese cities and their beauty, which seems to know no bounds.

With feet firmly on the ground and in a much more prosaic mood, those who awarded the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize in March gave the nod to Suzhou out of 36 cities worldwide. The prize honors what the organizers call "outstanding contributions towards creating livable and sustainable urban communities".

Three of the jewels in Suzhou's crown are the old city and its canals, often likened to Venice, and a high-tech development park and Suzhou Industrial Park.

The fact that the last of those has been developed in conjunction with Singapore and that the world city prize is organized by Singapore's Urban Redevelopment Authority may be no coincidence. The prize is named after the former prime minister of Singapore, who, organizers say, "was instrumental in developing Singapore into a distinctive, clean and green garden city in a short span of a few decades".

Yang Zhiping, director of Suzhou Industrial Park's management committee, says that from the start it was designed to develop into an area with all the functions of a city.

"The Singaporean model was strictly followed, and it has proven to be crucial to the park's development. One important thing we learned from Singapore was that the park should be designed to be a new city that was very livable and that at the same time had a vibrant business environment."

Little more than 20 years after the park was set up, it seems to have achieved those goals, thanks in no small part to the joint construction and development of the park by China and Singapore. It has become one of China's leading industrial zones and has been the top destination for foreign capital in the last few years, Yang says.

The park covers about 28 square kilometers, 3.4 percent of Suzhou's total area, and 5.2 percent of the city's population lives there. The fact that it has fulfilled its mission to provide business vibrancy is clear when you consider that 91 Fortune 500 companies have invested in the park, and that it accounted for 15 percent of the city's GDP last year. Total GDP of the park was 190 billion yuan ($30.4 billion), 9.4 percent higher than in the previous year.

The fulfillment of its mission to provide livability is attested to by Strom Kong, 53, general manager of Anaren Communication Suzhou Co Ltd, who has lived in Suzhou for about 12 years. The park vividly reflects the city's achievements, he says.

"Life here is comfortable and relaxed, and business is thriving," says Kong, who is also chairman of the Suzhou Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.

Anaren Communication Suzhou Co Ltd was set up in 1992 and was one of the first foreign companies to invest in the park when it opened two years later.

"The park is very international," Kong says. "Living and working in it makes us feel at home," says Kong.

He has a daughter and a son, both of whom are studying in international schools affiliated with the park.

Since the park was set up, about 200 officials have been to Singapore and received management training there.

Those who manage the industrial park, apart from encouraging foreign companies to invest in the park, also help companies located there to go global. One such company is SJEC Corp, which makes lifts and escalators, computer control machines and energy-saving motors, and has sold its products to about 100 countries and regions.