Jiangsu Province is located in the middle of the Chinese coastal area and measures a total of 107,200 square kilometres. The province thus accounts for 1.12 per cent of China’s land mass and ranks 24th among all Chinese provinces. With a population of 84.748 million, however, Jiangsu ranks fourth. Since the beginning of the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, the province has achieved considerable success in its economic development. Beginning in 1992, the province has enjoyed 20 consecutive years of double-digit gross domestic product (GDP) growth. In 2021, Jiangsu generated a GDP of 11.64 trillion Renminbi, up 8.6 per cent from the previous year, ranking second in the country. GDP per capita thus amounted to 137,000 Renminbi. The primary sector generated 472.24 billion Renminbi, an increase of 3.1 per cent. The value added in the secondary sector was 5,177.54 billion Renminbi, an increase of 10.1 percent, and in the tertiary sector 5,986.64 billion Renminbi, an increase of 7.7 percent. DCW’s regional office of Jiangsu Province is located in Suzhou, a county-level city in the southeastern part of Jiangsu. The city has the most advanced economy and the highest degree of modernisation in the province. Due to its top economic position, Suzhou is considered Jiangsu’s centre of economy, finance, logistics, industry and foreign trade. In addition, Suzhou is an important cultural, scientific and educational city in China.
The economic and technical cooperation of Jiangsu Province with the German state of Baden-Württemberg continues to advance cooperation in the fields of human capital, social security and healthcare. Although the official, friendly relations between Baden-Württemberg and Jiangsu have only existed for 28 years, cooperation exists already for almost 40 years. The field of cooperation has gradually expanded from cooperation exclusively between small and medium-sized enterprises. Sectors such as e-cars, artificial intelligence, environmental technology and intelligent manufacturing are to be the focus of cooperation in the future.
