Model Cities

Suzhou

Background:

Profile:

One of the key cities in the Yangtze River Delta, Suzhou is a renowned cultural, historic and tourist city. The city is located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province , bordering Shanghai on the east, Zhejiang Province on the south, the Taihu Lake in the west and the Yangtze River in the north. The geographical coordinate of the city proper is at the northern latitude of 31 ° 19' and East longitude of 120 ° 37'.

Written historical records indicate that Suzhou has a history of over 4000 years,which entitles the city one of "24 Cultural and Historic Cities " approved as the first group of its kind by the State Council.

For thousands of years Suzhou has been a cradle of talented people. In ancient times Suzhou gave birth to many remarkable politicians, philosophers, strategists, scientists and artists, represented by Sun Wu,Fan Zhongyan, Shen Kuo, Tang Ying,Gu Yanwu, Kuai Xiang. In modern times, prominent people from Suzhou emerge in large numbers in various fields. Suzhou's painting, calligraphy, seal cutting, opera, medicine and architecture all have different schools and achievements. Its traditional handicrafts such as embroidery and Taohuawu woodcut picture enjoy a high reputation at home and abroad.

Built in 514B.C. with a history of more than 2,500 years,the city still stands at its original location in the Spring and Autumn Period. Well preserved are its double chessboard layout of "water and land in parallel, canal and street in neighbor",its network of rivers and canals composing three vertical, three horizontal and one ring, and its unique landscape of "small bridge, flowing water, white wall, black tile, cultural relics and classic gardens". In today's Suzhou there are 487 cultural relics under municipal-and-upper level protection, of which 15 are under state-level protection and 101 are under provincial protection. Over 60 classical gardens are well preserved and 9 of them are listed in the Catalog of World Cultural Heritage, namely, Humble Administrator's Garden, Lingering Garden , Master-of-nets Garden, Mountain

Villa of Embracing Beauty, Surging Wave Pavilion, Lion Grove Garden , Garden of Cultivation , Garden of Couple's Retreat, Garden of Retreat and Reflection. Other famous tourist attractions include Tiger Hill, Panmen Scenic Area,Shihu Lake , Lingyan Hill, Tianping Hill and Yushan Hill. Most scenic spots around the Taihu Lake are also in the city's administrative areas. In addition, thousand-year-old towns like Zhou Zhuang, Tongli and Luzhi feature the waterside sceneries in the Yangtze River Delta. In 1998 Suzhou was awarded "Excellent Tourist City of China ".


Economic Background:

The quality of the economic performance in the whole city of Suzhou improved steadily and its economic development in 2003 recorded a highest speed in the past ten years. The GDP of 2003 stood at 280.2 billion yuan, with an increase of 18% in terms of comparative price. The GDP per capita in terms of registered permanent population was 47,700 yuan or US$5,763 at the current exchange rate. Adjustment was made in the ratio of "three industries-the Primary Industry, the Secondary Industry and the Tertiary Industry",which was 4.4:58.2: 37.4 in 2002 and was 2.8:63.1: 34.1 in 2003. Its revenue amounted to 40.99 billion yuan, with a growth of 34.9% counted by the same sectors, of which local revenue accounted for 22.031 billion yuan, with an increase of 44.1% counted by the same sectors. The local budget revenue registered 17.05 billion yuan, which increased 43.2% counted by the same sectors. The proportion of revenue in the GDP kept growing for 8 successive years, reaching 14.6%, 0.6 point higher than the previous year.

The city increased unprecedented construction of the infrastructure.Urbanization further improved. The completed urban area of the city is 139.06 km 2, 9.65 km 2 higher than that of the previous year.

The strategy of sustainable development was carried out; the comprehensive treatment of the environment was strengthened; and efforts were made to speed up the construction of Suzhou into a national ecological model area. A series of projects were completed,including the first phase of ancient city preservation project, Nanmen Road, Youxin Flyover of South Ring Road , Suzhou Urban Planning Museum,Wuzixu Park , the trial project of restoration and protection of the historic Shantang region,Shilu pedestrian street, first phase Suzhou Taicang Port etc. 5 million m2 of new green area was added to the city.The green coverage of the city reached 37.1% and the per capita green land was 7.6 m2 . We built Tongjing Park ,Jiangfengzhou Park and other 2 city level parks and Confucius Temple and other 25 district level parks. Suzhou , Kunshan, Zhangjiagang were named as "National Garden City"and Suzhou is the 7th city in China that won the name of "International Garden City".

Completed in the year were the construction of the northern section of Suzhou-Jiaxing-Hangzhou Expressway, Suzhou 's west entrance and exit to Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway, the first phase preparation work of the light rail. And a group of important new projects started, including the testing work of the No. 1 route of the light rail, the Ring Road , Suzhou - Shanghai Highway, Suzhou-Kunshan-Taicang Highway , Suzhentao Highway , the second phase of Taicang Port , the second Power Plant of Changshu, Huayu Power Plant, Science Culture and Art Center , International Exhibition Center etc. The main streets of the city have been renovated. The total annual passenger transportation volume of the public bus was

250 million people. There were 135,000 households had installed new water meters for the project of "one house one meter" Natural gas pipes have laid for many districts. The total gas supply volume was 81.36 million cubic meters last year, 89.1% of the families use gas.


Suzhou Service Outsourcing Industry Development:

Purpose:

By 2010, Suzhou will have attracted or built over 10 international offshore service outsourcing general contractors and outsourcers, developed over 100 leading companies of service outsourcing, with over RMB 10 billion of service outsourcing turnover, and over US$ 1 billion of offshore service outsourcing turnover, and turned the software park into an internationally prestigious service outsourcing base.

The specific goals of the Suzhou Industrial Park are as follows:

1. Twenty of the world top 100 service outsourcing companies will be attracted to move to the industrial park, with 1 or 2 of the world top 10 ITO /BPO companies.

2. Fifty of the world top 500 companies will be attracted to outsource their business to the industrial park. 3. The total employment of the service outsourcing industry will reach 60,000.

4. Suzhou will be able to train 5,000 labor force for service outsourcing every year.

5. Annual revenues from service outsourcing will exceed RMB 15 billion, with US$ 1 billion from offshore outsourcing.


Political Support:

To support service outsourcing development, Suzhou Government made a number of policies, such as Tailored Taxation Polices for Technology-based Service Companies in the Suzhou Industrial Parks, Polices on Promoting Development of Technology-based Service Companies in the Suzhou Industrial Parks, Policies on Promoting Development of Service Outsourcing of the Suzhou Industrial Parks, and Policies on Administration of Certification of Technology-based ServiceCompanies in the Suzhou Industrial Parks etc., under the support of the central authorities of finance, commerce, taxation and technology. Major taxation preferential polices are listed as follows: From July 1, 2006, 15% of corporate income tax will be cut for domestic and foreign technology-based service companies that have been certified as new and high technology-based companies.

From July 1, 2006, the actual legal payroll of the technology-based service companies that have been certified as new and high technology-based companies will be deducted before corporate income tax payment.

From January 1, 2006, employee education funds, within 2.5% of the total payroll of company in the same year, will be deducted from corporate income tax payment for technology-based service companies.

Devott Publications
The Selection of the TOP Global Outsourcing Destinations – China TOP 15 (TGOD China TOP 15) Ended and Its Rankings and Research Reports are Now Available Worldwide