Wuxi Party Secretary Li Xiaomin delivers a speech on the fourth Global Wuxi Business Conference, May 21. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

About 600 local and overseas guests took part in the fourth Global Wuxi Business Conference by Taihu Lake on May 21, exchanging ideas on the future development of Wuxi.

Of the attendees, 89 had also joined in the second Jiangsu Development Summit in Nanjing the day before. They were glad to return to their hometown of Wuxi and see changes in the city.

During the opening ceremony, Wuxi Party Secretary Li Xiaomin and another eight guests voiced their thoughts on city development.

Li warmly welcomed the guests to come back to Wuxi as he described the changes and developments in the city, which now owns several key innovative platforms, including the national IoT innovation center, a high-performance computing center and a deep sea equipment laboratory.

Located in the center of the Yangtze Delta region, Wuxi focuses on promoting the area's integration and development. The city, with its GDP having reached 1.14 trillion yuan ($170.2 billion) last year, ranking 14th nationwide, has a per-capita GDP of 174,300 yuan, the second-highest in China.

Wuxi is home to more than 2,000 IoT companies, whose sales surpassed 263 billion yuan in 2018, accounting for about half of the total sales in Jiangsu province and about a quarter nationally.

Tang Yingnian (right), chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Jiangsu Community, is recognized for his efforts in promoting economic development between Hong Kong and Jiangsu province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The conference also revealed the top 10 excellent figures from Wuxi and top 100 Wuxi private companies. Tang Yingnian, chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Jiangsu Community, received an award for his efforts in promoting economic development between Hong Kong and Jiangsu province.

Held for the fourth year, the conference has witnessed a number of projects being signed over its lifetime.