This Day, That Year

Editor’s note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

On Feb 26, 1994, China and Singapore launched the Suzhou Industrial Park project to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship and attract high-tech industries.

An item on Sept 1, 1995, from China Daily showed the industrial park under construction in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

The SIP occupies 278 square kilometers in eastern Suzhou, about one- third of Singapore’s size, while 80 sq km belongs to the China-Singapore cooperation zone.

After 25 years of development, the park has become a model for China’s economic cooperation with other countries. It has been ranked the best industrial park among the 219 in China, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Its gross domestic product in 2017 was 238.8 billion yuan ($35.58 billion), up from 1 billion yuan in 1994. With 3.4 percent of Suzhou’s land area, it contributes more than 14 percent to the city’s economy.

By the end of 2017, it was home to 60,000 companies, of which more than 90 were Fortune 500 companies.

Since the SIP became operational, a series of bilateral cooperation projects has been launched.

The Qingdao Sino-German Ecopark, the only joint project between the Chinese and German governments, began Phase-1 construction in 2011. The park is expected to be fully operational by 2020.

In March 2016, the China-Belarus Industrial Park, also known as the Great Stone Industrial Park, formally started construction. It is a short drive from the Minsk airport.

Covering 91.5 sq km in total, it is the largest China-invested overseas economic and trade park.