Xinhua Silk Road: E. China's Wuhu values innovation, provides comprehensive supports to business

BEIJING, Jan. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The city of Wuhu in east China's Anhui Province features an intrinsic value of innovation, which guides it to create a supportive and inclusive environment for the innovative bodies, leading to a self-consistent development path, said Shan Xiangqian, Party chief of Wuhu.

Positioned as the provincial sub-center, Wuhu is the city with the second highest GDP in Anhui Province. In the first three quarters of 2021, the city saw a GDP growth rate of 13.6 percent, highest among cities in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Innovation driven, new-energy and intelligent connected vehicle has become the top industry of Wuhu, with 311 industrial enterprises above designated size gathered in the city, making a total value of nearly 130 billion yuan (about 20.39 billion U.S. dollars). With seven national-level R&D platforms and 77 provincial-level ones, the city has formed a complete industrial chain featuring core firms including Chery Automobile.

As the city of Wuhu strives to cultivate outstanding innovative companies, it is inspired by the innovation efforts made by the enterprises as well, Shan noted. With R&D investment accounting for 3.34 percent of the total, the city is aiming for gathering over 2,000 high-tech enterprises and 2,500 industrial enterprises above designated size by the year 2023.

"Whether a company choose to settle in a city is ultimately related with the potential to make profit," said Shan, explaining why improving corporate profitability is the key focus of Wuhu's effort in optimizing business environment.

In recent years, Wuhu has introduced a series of innovative measures to improve business environment. For instance, the city established nine working groups across different fields to help the companies increase their profit through in-depth research on 300 major local companies.

"Our ultimate goal is to make policy implementation as easy as online shopping," said Shan, noting that the city will try its best to serve local enterprises. "Though there is no one company that can fully represent Wuhu, together they compose the essence of the city," he said.

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