Suzhou: Italian firms in the Venice of the East

Abstract

This work will discuss the linkage between Italy and Suzhou, an eastern Chinese city located in Jiangsu province. Near to Nanjing, Hangzhou and Shanghai, Suzhou succeeded in reaching an important economic position within the province and within the country itself. Briefly passing through an historical contextualization to understand the reason why Suzhou has been important since its foundation, the paper will analyse its administrative structure. As a prefecture-level city, its municipality governs five important county-level cities: Kunshan, Wujiang, Changshi, Taicang and Zhanjiagang. They are vital to Suzhou’s economy and all of them have been ranked among the first ten of the “Top 100 powerful counties in China”. The city itself has three main districts: Gusu district, Suzhou Industrial Park and Suzhou New and Hi-tech Development Zone. Through the analysis of its districts and some of its administrated county-level cities, the aim of this work is to understand the reason behind the economic success of the city, what is happening today and what is going to happen next. Suzhou Industrial Park is one of the main focuses of the work. The state joint-venture between Chinese and Singaporean governments is something very peculiar and interesting. Born in 1994 from the collaboration of the two states and designated as a Special Economic Development Zone it hosts many important companies from all over the world and, in 2013, its GDP reached USD 26 billion. The other main district within the city is Suzhou New District. Born in 1992, it has received huge investment from companies from more than 30 different countries. In 2017, its GDP peaked at USD 18 billion contributing for a great part to the city’s total GDP. Kunshan and Wujiang will be analysed as well because of their huge impact on Suzhou’s economic progress. Kunshan in particular was ranked as the first among the city with the highest GDP. The main focus of the work will be the analysis of the Italian environment that has been created in Suzhou. As the matter of fact, with more than 200 companies running operations or opening plants in Suzhou, it is the city that hosts more Italian companies outside Italy itself. Through interviews and data analysis it will be considered the reason that brought so many Italian companies to decide to run operations in Suzhou. Different companies as Pelliconi Suzhou Closures Manufacturing Company Limited, Modula, Omet and Carimali will be among the most important case studies of the work