Wuxi tops Forbes best prefecture-level business city list

Wuxi ranks eighth on the list of China's best cities for business in 2015. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Wuxi ranked eighth on the list of China's best cities for business in 2015. In spite of a slight decline from last year, it still stayed at the top of all prefecture-level cities, according to Forbes China, the licensed China-language edition of Forbes magazine.

Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen ranked in the top three.

Insiders considered the falling indices of passenger traffic and consumptive power to be the major causes of Wuxi's decrease in the ranking. However, the expansion of its aviation port and the operation of its express industrial park will be conducive to the city’s steady rise in the freight index.

"Actually, the substantial economy in Wuxi is at a critical juncture of stabilizing and recovering," said Cao Bingru, assistant to the dean at the School of Business, Jiangnan University.

He added that Wuxi, a highland of traditional manufacturing industries, saw sluggish growth in that area in previous years, which weakened economic growth. Over time, Wuxi's urban competitiveness was influenced.

The indices of talent and innovation went up steadily. The Wuxi government is trying to stimulate the development of local enterprises through attracting talented people. It aims to drive industrial development with innovation.

Currently, the city has drawn nine Nobel Prize winners and 11 foreign academicians to build research institutes with local companies.

For example, Jiangyin USUN Biochemical Technology Co. welcomed the 1982 Nobel Prize Winner for Physiology or Medicine, Bengt I. Samuelsson, and the team of C.A. Floudas of the US National Academy of Engineering in 2013. It was the first company to receive a Registration Certificate for Medical Devices in the application area of mussel adhesive proteins.

According to recently-issued policies, Wuxi will strongly support local companies' scientific research innovation, encourage them to grow in e-business and cloud computing, and subsidize those involved in the service sector and convention and exhibition industry.

"During the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), Wuxi, a famous industrial city, will be in investors' good graces," said Shen Yunfu, a member of the China Suburbs Economy Seminar Association, who pays close attention to Wuxi's economic development.