Innovation dictates the future, where only the courageous advance and only the adaptable grow stronger. By 2025, Xuzhou had over 2,200 technology-based small and medium enterprises in its database, with the "capillaries" of innovation spreading throughout the entire region. In the same year, the operating revenue of the city's scientific and technological service industries above a designated scale increased by 14.64% year-on-year, ranking among the top performers in the province. In tackling key core technologies, Xuzhou is transitioning from isolated "solo assaults" to systematic "collective攻坚" (group assaults). For Xuzhou, the leap from resource dependence to innovation-driven growth represents a critical shift from merely following to running alongside leaders. This requires foresight, resilience, and, most importantly, the courage to spur into action. Standing at the outset of the "16th Five-Year Plan" period, Xuzhou is taking the reins with daring and wielding the whip with wisdom, embarking on a new chapter defined by innovation and driven by science and technology.
Strategic positioning is key to locking onto the main sci-tech track. The decisive leap forward begins with a clear vision and bold action. The era of resource-dependent growth models is over, with innovation-driven development now becoming the new core code for urban evolution—a choice made with both resolve and clarity. Currently, Xuzhou is advancing the construction of a National Sustainable Development Agenda Innovation Demonstration Zone to high standards. Realizing this strategy requires robust foundational support. In recent years, Xuzhou has vigorously implemented the "Capability Enhancement and Peak Creation" project for sci-tech platforms, striving to build the "pillars and beams" that will support its future. Presently, resources from both "national teams" and "provincial teams" are rapidly converging. National key laboratories in Xuzhou have completed optimization and restructuring; the Yunlong Lake Laboratory for Deep Earth Science and Engineering was successfully approved as a Jiangsu Provincial Laboratory; and two provincial-level concept verification centers at China University of Mining and Technology and Xuzhou Medical University gained approval. Concurrently, high-energy platforms such as the High-End Engineering Machinery Manufacturing Innovation Center, the Cell Therapy Drug Industry Innovation Center, and the Safety and Emergency Equipment Technology Innovation Center are accelerating their development. Together with the city's cumulative total of 300 registered new research and development institutions, they create a powerful synergistic effect, deeply integrating top-tier intellect, cutting-edge technology, and industrial foundations to continuously unleash a fountainhead of innovation.
The very model of innovation itself is undergoing a profound transformation. In recent years, Xuzhou has accelerated the creation of the Xuzhou Sci-Tech Circle and a regional innovation hub, pushing innovation from mere "platform assembly" towards "systematic operations." In 2025, Xuzhou drafted and refined the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of the Xuzhou Sci-Tech Circle (Preliminary Draft)," compiling 70 key projects for the Circle's development; it took the lead in promoting the implementation of key tasks for building the regional sci-tech center; and it systematically planned and compiled the "16th Five-Year Plan" special science and technology plan. By clearing the pathways and consolidating efforts, this series of measures ensures Xuzhou's wave of innovation surges forward relentlessly. The effectiveness of this layout is already visible in surging data: in 2025, 13 enterprises in the city ranked among Jiangsu's (Potential) Unicorns, and 50 enterprises were recognized as Jiangsu Gazelles; the number of high-tech enterprise applications approached a thousand, with newly certified enterprises expected to exceed 600 within the year. In Xuzhou, the living waters of sci-tech are being tangibly converted into the powerful momentum of industrial development. This vigorous leap forward is not for following, but for leading. A technological panorama, unfolding from the depths of the earth towards the vast sky, is gradually spreading across Xuzhou, inaugurating a new pattern defined by innovation.
Ecological empowerment is crucial for spurring the acceleration of innovation. Having built up momentum, now is the time to wield the whip. If "choosing to leap high" defines Xuzhou's boldness, then "leveraging strength to advance" tests its systemic capability to aggregate resources and optimize the ecosystem. Xuzhou's sci-tech journey was never about the solo advance of a single technology, but rather a meticulously constructed "innovation rainforest"—a systematic project for steady, forward development. Policy acts as the "guiding whip" that sets the direction. Xuzhou precisely clears obstacles, charting the path for innovators. It deepens "Dual-High Synergy," using the coordinated development of "advantageous industrial clusters + advantageous academic discipline groups" as the core pathway to promote mutual adaptation and empowerment between high-tech zones and universities, building an innovation ecology tailored to local conditions. In July of last year, Xuzhou High-tech Zone paired with China University of Mining and Technology, Jiangsu Normal University, and Xuzhou University of Technology, successfully gaining approval as one of the province's first batch of "Dual-High Synergy" pilot projects. As the cultivation concept of "one park, one industry, one track" takes clear root in Xuzhou, the deep-earth equipment track in Xuzhou High-tech Zone successfully competed for a spot on the national new track cultivation list, and Gulou High-tech Zone officially transitioned from preparation to construction, continuously optimizing the innovation landscape.
Finance serves as the "vitality whip" that delivers essential nutrients. Xuzhou is committed to building a financial service ecosystem covering the entire lifecycle of enterprises. In 2025, disbursements under the "Suke Loan" program reached 1.644 billion yuan, supporting 384 enterprises (in terms of instances); government-guided funds exhibited "superior patience" in accompanying hard-tech companies across the "valley of death"; the establishment of the Xuzhou branch of the Jiangsu Provincial Sci-Tech Finance (Sci-Tech Bonds) Service and Promotion Center further signified a new stage in the deep integration of "technology-industry-finance." Integration acts as the "driving whip" for coordinated effort. Xuzhou uses reform as a blade to fully overcome the blockages in the deep integration of industry, academia, and research. It promotes "use before payment" for scientific and technological achievements, loosening the bonds on commercialization; it deepens "Dual-High Synergy" to efficiently convert intellectual power into industrial momentum; it explores "combination of grants and investments" and "unveiling the list and appointing the best," ensuring resources flow to where they are most needed. The empowerment of the ecosystem is both specific and grand in scale. Exploring the depths, the Yunlong Lake Laboratory "dives deep" underground, committed to deciphering the scientific secrets of the Earth's interior; scaling the heights, industrial innovation centers for high-end engineering machinery, cell therapy drugs, and safety and emergency equipment anchor themselves to national strategies and future industrial demands. This interplay of "deep" and "high" vividly illustrates the tension and depth of Xuzhou's innovation ecosystem. When the soil for innovation is sufficiently fertile, the seeds of innovation will naturally break ground and form a forest. Xuzhou intertwines the certainty of policy guidance, the nourishing power of financial "living water," and the synergy of integrated symbiosis into a remarkable "innovation acceleration."
When strategic positioning and ecological empowerment resonate in harmony, the accumulated kinetic energy of innovation surges forth, entering a new phase of fission-like growth and radiating leadership. Xuzhou is now reaping the harvest of implemented innovation strategies and comprehensive industrial advancement. Local "steeds" gallop forward, driving industrial upgrading with hardcore technology. Xuzhou Firefighting's high-flow drainage and rescue vehicles, Xuzhou Bokang's KrF photoresists, Jiangsu Zhixiansheng's digital operation and maintenance platforms... achievement after achievement represents hardcore breakthroughs in fields like high-end equipment, semiconductor materials, and industrial software. The "critical leap" in sci-tech is fostering new leaders and hidden champions. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with local leading enterprises, they form the backbone of industrial upgrading, and within clustered symbiosis, they ignite the powerful kinetic energy of a "herd of horses racing." Currently, Xuzhou has firmly established its main position across four hundred-billion-yuan industrial clusters: engineering machinery stands strong at the forefront, green and low-carbon energy is rapidly rising, the digital economy is burgeoning vigorously, and food and agricultural product processing is transforming and improving in quality. The aggregation and fission triggered by innovation are reshaping the industrial landscape, weaving independently controllable industrial chains into a mighty force leading development.
As the internal innovation ecosystem matures, the outward radiation of energy becomes inevitable. Xuzhou is transitioning from a city that aggregates innovation resources to a source of innovation that serves the wider region. In 2025, Xuzhou continued to refine its technology transaction system, forming an open, interconnected regional technology transaction network platform. Through various platforms, it pushed 5,100 scientific and technological achievements to enterprises, enabling efficient connection between the "most powerful brains" in laboratories and the "demand sensors" of the vast market, weaving an increasingly dense regional innovation collaboration network. The "leap" represents the strategic choice of locking onto the right track; the "crack of the whip" signifies the full-force assault to activate the ecosystem; the "gallop" embodies the restructuring of the landscape through fission-like growth. With the ambition of "leaping," Xuzhou decisively jumped out of its comfort zone and locked onto the main sci-tech track. With the strategy of "wielding the whip," it meticulously constructed a rainforest ecosystem, spurring innovation acceleration. Now, as strategic foresight, ecological vitality, and market momentum deeply couple, the city has entered a new realm of "galloping"—where innovation achievements multiply fission-like, development momentum surges powerfully, and radiating effects transcend boundaries. The future has arrived; a Xuzhou defined by innovation and driven by science and technology is spurring its horse and galloping across the infinitely vast new blue ocean.
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