As an old industrial base in Northern Jiangsu, Xuzhou City in Jiangsu Province has accelerated its industrial transformation in recent years, drawing significant attention to whether it can successfully enter the "Trillion GDP Club" by 2025, achieving a "zero breakthrough" for the Northern Jiangsu region. On February 2, 2026, this suspense was finally resolved. According to the "2025 Xuzhou Economic Performance Report" released by the Xuzhou Municipal Bureau of Statistics, based on unified regional GDP accounting results, Xuzhou achieved a regional GDP of 995.722 billion yuan in 2025, representing a 5.8% year-on-year growth calculated at constant prices.
The China Business Journal learned that in 2022, after being approved to build a national innovation demonstration zone for sustainable development agendas, Xuzhou proposed fostering "343" innovation industrial clusters. In 2025, the scale of four major industrial clusters—construction machinery, green and low-carbon energy, digital economy, and food and agricultural product processing—each exceeded 100 billion yuan, with the total scale of innovation industrial clusters expected to reach 850 billion yuan. Regarding the topic of entering the "Trillion GDP Club," Song Lewei, Secretary of the Xuzhou Municipal Party Committee, responded during a discussion with the Tongshan District delegation on the afternoon of January 21, stating, "Do not dwell on this number; we must not be burdened by figures. We should develop as we ought to, steadily and solidly."
Relevant data show that in 2024, Xuzhou's regional GDP reached 953.7 billion yuan, positioning the city at the threshold of the "Trillion GDP Club." On January 21, 2026, during the Sixth Session of the 17th Xuzhou Municipal People's Congress, Mayor Shen Junfeng, while delivering the Government Work Report, only disclosed that "the regional GDP for 2025 is expected to grow by approximately 5.8%." The latest data released by the Xuzhou Municipal Bureau of Statistics indicate that, based on unified regional GDP accounting results, Xuzhou achieved a regional GDP of 995.722 billion yuan in 2025. Specifically, the added value of the primary industry was 79.246 billion yuan, up 3% year-on-year; the secondary industry added 365.629 billion yuan, up 3.5%; and the tertiary industry contributed 550.847 billion yuan, surging 8%.
In 2025, the value-added of industrial enterprises above the designated size in Xuzhou increased by 6.8% year-on-year. Among the 38 major industrial categories, the chemical fiber manufacturing, agricultural and sideline food processing, and electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing sectors saw value-added growth of 10.5%, 13.1%, and 18.6%, respectively. The value-added of high-tech manufacturing above the designated size rose by 9%, outpacing the overall industrial growth by 2.2 percentage points. As the "leading tiger" among the "Five Tigers of Northern Jiangsu," Xuzhou has long maintained the sixth position in economic scale within Jiangsu Province. As early as 2021, Xuzhou proposed in its 14th Five-Year Plan to "strive to join the ranks of cities with a trillion-yuan economy by 2025." Subsequently, the goal of "entering the trillion-yuan city club" was included in the city's Government Work Report for four consecutive years.
In March 2025, Xuzhou held a work promotion conference, mobilizing the entire city to anchor high-quality development as a regional central city and steadily advance toward becoming a trillion-yuan city. At that time, Song Lewei emphasized that "steadily advancing toward a trillion-yuan city" should be the annual work theme, striving to make greater contributions to Jiangsu's overall development. On the afternoon of January 21, 2026, regarding the "sprint to a trillion" topic, Song Lewei expressed a clear stance during discussions with the Tongshan District delegation: be realistic and let nature take its course. "Do not dwell on this number; we must not be burdened by figures."
"This attitude reflects Xuzhou's maturity and pragmatism in development philosophy, actively breaking away from the 'GDP-only' mindset," said Yuan Shuai, an expert at the China Business Media Think Tank and Deputy Director of the Investment Department at the China Academy of Urban Development. Yuan Shuai believes that Xuzhou's ability to shift focus from the obsession with a trillion-yuan GDP figure back to the essence of solid development is undoubtedly a rational return. In his view, this attitude signifies that Xuzhou places greater emphasis on the substance and quality of economic development, no longer judging success solely by GDP figures but prioritizing sustainability and inclusivity, committed to enhancing industrial competitiveness, improving livelihoods, and optimizing the ecological environment through diligent work to achieve comprehensive and coordinated economic and social development.
"995.722 billion yuan, just 4.278 billion yuan short of a trillion, may seem like a small gap, but it actually reveals that the core drivers supporting Xuzhou's economic breakthrough remain insufficient," Yuan Shuai noted. As a traditional heavy industrial city, Xuzhou historically relied on resource-based industries like coal and steel. Although the city has been promoting industrial transformation in recent years, traditional industries still account for a relatively high proportion. "The growth space for such industries is relatively limited, making it difficult to provide sustained and strong incremental momentum."
According to the 2025 economic performance report, Xuzhou also faces the challenge of declining fixed-asset investment. Data from the Xuzhou Municipal Bureau of Statistics show that in 2025, fixed-asset investment in Xuzhou fell by 11.9% year-on-year. By industry, investment in the primary sector dropped 27.4%, the secondary sector declined 11.5%, and the tertiary sector decreased 11.9%. It was noted that "anchoring investment promotion as a top priority" has become a key focus for Xuzhou in 2026. On January 21, while delivering the Government Work Report, Shen Junfeng proposed that Xuzhou will optimize the integrated coordination mechanism for investment promotion, strengthen three professional investment teams for industry, technology, and services, host the 29th Investment Promotion Conference, and attract over 1,000 projects with investments exceeding 100 million yuan throughout the year.
Shen Junfeng stated that Xuzhou will precisely target central state-owned enterprises, leading private enterprises, and listed companies, expand diverse investment promotion methods such as "clusters, chain leaders, scenarios, platforms, and funds," establish a city-wide resource allocation mechanism, secure 120 new projects with investments over 1 billion yuan, and strive for greater breakthroughs in projects exceeding 5 billion yuan. Recently, the Xuzhou Municipal Party Committee and Government issued the "Notice on Implementing Major Industrial Projects in 2026," planning to implement 360 major industrial projects in 2026 with an annual expected investment totaling 106.5 billion yuan, demonstrating strong development momentum and solid project reserves.
According to the project list, among the 360 projects, 235 are new startups with an expected annual investment of 66.3 billion yuan, while 125 are ongoing (carry-over) projects with an expected annual investment of 40.2 billion yuan. As of now, 56 out of 128 major industrial projects planned to start in the first quarter of 2026 have commenced construction, achieving a startup rate of 43.8%. By industry category, manufacturing is the absolute mainstay, with 310 related projects and an expected annual investment of 98 billion yuan. Additionally, there are 50 service industry projects, covering both producer and consumer services, with an expected annual investment of 8.5 billion yuan.
Materials provided by the Xuzhou Municipal Party Committee's Propaganda Department staff show that in the layout of major industrial projects for 2026, there are 248 projects in advantageous industrial clusters aimed at consolidating traditional strengths; 55 projects in emerging industrial clusters focused on cultivating new动能; and 34 projects in future industrial clusters, emphasizing forward-looking布局. Yuan Shuai analyzed that although Xuzhou's emerging industries have achieved some development, they have not yet formed a sufficiently large cluster effect, and their pulling power on the economy is not fully manifested, especially in high-end manufacturing and the digital economy, where gaps remain compared to advanced domestic cities. "It is essential to attract leading enterprises with core competitiveness and land标志性 industrial projects to provide sufficient support for breaking through the GDP scale."
The Yunlong Lake Laboratory for Deep Earth Science and Engineering was successfully approved as a Jiangsu Provincial Laboratory; two provincial concept verification centers at China University of Mining and Technology and Xuzhou Medical University were approved; high-level platforms such as the High-end Construction Machinery Manufacturing Innovation Center, Cell Therapy Drug Industry Innovation Center, and Safety Emergency Equipment Technology Innovation Center are accelerating their construction. Relevant data show that by the end of 2025, Xuzhou had cumulatively registered 300 new research and development institutions. Throughout 2025, 13 enterprises in the city entered the ranks of Jiangsu's (potential) "unicorns," and 50 enterprises were recognized as Jiangsu's "gazelles"; nearly a thousand enterprises applied for high-tech enterprise status, and over 2,200 small and medium-sized tech enterprises were included in the database.
It is understood that in 2022, the State Council approved Xuzhou's construction of a national innovation demonstration zone for sustainable development agendas, aiming to lead the high-quality development of resource-based regional central cities through innovation. Also in that year, Xuzhou proposed cultivating "343" innovation industrial clusters: focusing on building three advantageous innovation industrial clusters—construction machinery, green and low-carbon energy, and new materials; accelerating the cultivation of four emerging innovation industrial clusters—digital economy, integrated circuits and ICT, medical health, and safety emergency; and upgrading three characteristic innovation industrial clusters—high-quality steel, high-end textiles, and food and agricultural product processing.
According to Zhao Fei, Deputy Director of the Xuzhou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, driven by the cultivation of "343" innovation industrial clusters, Xuzhou's industrial structure has continued to optimize and upgrade. In 2025, the scale of four major industrial clusters—construction machinery, green and low-carbon energy, digital economy, and food and agricultural product processing—each exceeded 100 billion yuan, with the total scale of innovation industrial clusters expected to reach 850 billion yuan. Zhao Fei stated that as Xuzhou's "flagship industry," the construction machinery sector not only gained approval as one of the nation's first advanced manufacturing clusters but also achieved domestic sales leadership in 17 types of host products and a self-sufficiency rate of over 90% across the entire industry chain. A batch of "national heavy equipment," including the world's largest 4000-ton crawler crane and the world's first 4000-ton all-terrain crane, has been successively launched, showcasing the hardcore strength of Chinese equipment manufacturing.
Looking toward the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, Xuzhou is布局 future industries with a forward-looking vision, focusing on cultivating long-term growth poles for new quality productive forces. Zheng Peng, a fourth-level researcher at the Xuzhou Municipal Development and Reform Commission, previously stated that in 2024, the revenue scale of future industry enterprises in Xuzhou had reached 20.42 billion yuan and was expected to grow to 31.6 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 29%. The deep earth industry in the Xuzhou High-tech Zone was successfully selected as one of the province's first pilot clusters for the先行集聚发展 of future industries, becoming the only industry in Northern Jiangsu to receive this honor. It is reported that Xuzhou has currently gathered 331 enterprises related to future industries.
Based on existing industrial foundations and future trends, Xuzhou has preliminarily planned to build a "4+X" future industrial system, focusing on developing four growth-type future industries—embodied intelligence, deep earth, hydrogen energy, and bio-manufacturing—while closely tracking a batch of前瞻关注类 industries such as aerospace information, virtual reality, and atomic-level manufacturing. "To accelerate its industrial transformation process, Xuzhou needs to strengthen the core supporting role of technological innovation," Yuan Shuai emphasized. He added that Xuzhou should increase investment in scientific research, build more high-level innovation platforms, attract and gather high-end innovative talent, enhance cooperation with universities and research institutions, promote the deep integration of industry, academia, research, and application, and accelerate the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements to provide continuous technological support for industrial transformation.
Comments