A woman works at a digital spinningworkshop of a textile factory in Nanjing city, Jiangsu province. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By ZHONG Jianli

In recent years, China's Jiangsu province has comprehensively implemented new development concepts and built a new development pattern, where high-quality development has become its distinctive feature.

The province's sci-tech innovation capabilities have been significantly improved, with deeper integration of the innovation chain with the industrial chain.

In 2022, the R&D input intensity of the province reached three percent, contributing more than 12 percent to the whole country. The number of patents owned by 10,000 people was 50.4, maintaining the first place among all provinces. The output value of high-tech enterprises accounted for 48.5 percent of the total output of industrial enterprises above the designated size.

"Jiangsu has strengthened the development of core technologies in key areas. It has led the country in technological innovation on nanotechnology, supercomputing, Internet of Things, and biomedicine," said Zhao Jianguo, deputy director general of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Science and Technology.

The real economy and the manufacturing industry are the foundation of Jiangsu's development. The province has made great efforts to improve the resilience and safety level of the industrial chain and supply chain and promote the industrial structure to move towards the mid-to-high level.

According to Xu Jun, deputy director general of the province's Industry and Information Technology Department, the added value of the province's manufacturing industry reached 4.6 trillion RMB in 2022, accounting for about 13.7 percent of the country and 4 percent of the world.

The scale of the digital economy exceeded 5 trillion RMB. The value of industries such as new materials, energy conservation and environmental protection, new energy, and marine engineering equipment ranks first in the country.

While achieving rapid economic development, the province also achieved good results in ecological protection. The environment quality has reached the highest level this century, said Yin Rongyao, deputy director general of the province's Department of Ecology and Environment.

According to statistics, 3,876 chemical companies along the Jiangsu section of the Yangtze River have been shut down for environment-protection related reasons, and the water quality of the Yangtze River has maintained Class II for five consecutive years.