The economic "report card" for 2025 released by the Jiangsu Provincial Bureau of Statistics reveals that Jiangsu's regional GDP exceeded 14 trillion yuan, reaching 14,235.15 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.3%. This represents high growth on a high base. Since the start of the "14th Five-Year Plan," the province's total economic output has climbed from 10.5 trillion yuan in 2020 to 14.2 trillion yuan in 2025, crossing four trillion-yuan thresholds in just five years. Behind the 14 trillion yuan figure lies Jiangsu's determined advance under pressure, driven by a sense of responsibility to "take the lead and set an example." By steadfastly focusing on high-quality development as its primary task and exerting multi-dimensional efforts in industrial upgrading, innovation-driven growth, domestic demand expansion, open collaboration, and balanced development, Jiangsu has seen its high-quality development become increasingly advanced and optimized, demonstrating remarkable economic resilience and vitality.
On March 25, 2025, with the listing of Semicore Nanotech on the STAR Market, the total number of companies listed within Jiangsu province surpassed 700. Over 70% of these are private enterprises, with nearly 100 newly listed companies focusing on hard-tech sectors such as integrated circuits and biomedicine, highlighting the innovation-driven nature of the growth. In 2025 alone, Jiangsu added 29 new A-share listed companies, ranking first in the country and accounting for a quarter of the national total of new listings. This achievement is attributed to Jiangsu leveraging its industrial advantages and utilizing capital markets to foster the development of new productive forces. Through multi-pronged efforts in knowledge training, nurturing后备 enterprises, and ecosystem cultivation, the province has vigorously supported technological innovation companies, particularly in advanced manufacturing, shifting the focus of development towards a competition in quality.
In August 2025, the "China (Jiangsu) Pilot Free Trade Zone Bio-medicine Whole Industry Chain Open Innovation Development Plan" received approval from the State Council, achieving "three firsts": it was the first in the nation to propose open innovation development for the entire bio-medicine industry chain; Jiangsu became the first province to secure a pilot program in the bio-medicine sector; and it was the first national specialized plan approved since the establishment of the Jiangsu Pilot Free Trade Zone. This approval represents a national trust based on substantial industrial strength—Jiangsu's bio-medicine industry scale accounts for one-eighth of the national total, and the number of innovative drugs approved for market in Jiangsu constitutes about one-third of the national figure, with both indicators leading the country. Half of this contribution comes from the three major sections of the Free Trade Zone.
In 2025, the number of active foreign trade enterprises in Jiangsu Province with actual import and export performance exceeded 100,000 for the first time, reaching a record high of 103,200. Among these "100,000+" enterprises are new faces that successfully took their "first step overseas" with policy support, evergreen players whose products reach global markets thanks to technological accumulation, and specialized, sophisticated, and innovative forces opening international markets with innovative products. The diverse vitality of these business entities is driving Jiangsu's export structure towards advanced and optimized patterns: the proportion of mechanical and electrical products in exports exceeded 70% for the first time, the "new three" categories continued to grow, and emerging categories like artificial intelligence began to make their mark, collectively supporting the leap to a nearly 6 trillion yuan foreign trade scale.
On July 28, 2025, the 16th session of the Standing Committee of the 14th Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress reviewed and passed the "Jiangsu Province Private Economy Promotion Regulation (Draft)." As a major province for the private economy and one of the most vibrant regions for private enterprise development in China, promoting the private economy in Jiangsu involves a wide range and strong comprehensiveness. By enacting this legislation, Jiangsu has optimized the mechanisms for guaranteeing essential factors such as land, finance, and talent for private enterprises, providing a legal "anchor" for the market's "engine" and ensuring the stable and long-term development of the most dynamic economic force.
Consumption is a key engine for expanding domestic demand and smoothing circulation. In 2025, Jiangsu's total retail sales of consumer goods scale ranked first in the country for the first time, reaching 4.6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%. Behind this impressive performance is an extremely rich supply side meeting the demands of people's better lives, a province-wide coordinated effort and precise layout of "combination punches" to boost consumption, and a continuously increasing contribution rate of consumption to economic growth, where new products, new scenarios, and new experiences inject more vitality into the economy.
On April 18, 2025, the Jiangsu Provincial Data Exchange officially commenced operations and launched its first batch of 380 data products, marking a new stage in the market-oriented allocation reform of data elements in Jiangsu. As the province's unified data trading platform, it adopts a "province-city co-construction" model, establishing 10 industry-specific zones and 14 regional-specific boards, building a unified provincial on-exchange trading system described as "one exchange, one set of rules, one platform." It has cumulatively listed over 4,400 data products and gathered more than 2,200 data merchants and service institutions, infusing "intelligent blood" into the real economy.
On November 26, 2025, the Industrial Artificial Intelligence Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was inaugurated in Nanjing. The institute focuses on the frontiers of industrial AI, aims to make breakthroughs in common key technologies such as large AI models, and will build a general industrial AI systems platform, striving to become a source of original innovation and a hub for industrial technology radiation in industrial AI. The settlement of this top national scientific research force in a key manufacturing hub introduces a top-tier "national brain" to Jiangsu's intelligent manufacturing, with the ambition of winning the future of smart manufacturing.
On October 31, 2025, the Jiangsu Social Security Science and Innovation Fund was signed in Nanjing, with an initial scale of 50 billion yuan. The fund was jointly established by Jiangsu Province, the National Council for Social Security Fund, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. It adopts a two-tier "fund-of-funds + direct investment" structure and a joint management model, focusing its investments on the construction of a modern industrial system. This deep alignment of long-term "national team" capital with local strategy uses "patient capital" to support hard-tech breakthroughs that require long cultivation cycles. It is a sowing of seeds for the future, investing not just in projects but also in trust for Jiangsu's innovative practices.
On December 3, 2025, the Future Network Test Facility officially passed national acceptance and commenced operations in Nanjing. This facility is akin to a "network high-speed railway" covering 40 cities across the country. It has not only broken through key technologies such as service-customized network architecture and large-scale network operating systems but has also established the world's first wide-area deterministic network. Now, the massive data from the "China Sky Eye" (FAST) can be transmitted in just a few hours using this network, and the efficiency of large model collaborative training has been significantly improved. This "invisible ultra-high-speed track" is providing critical support for national strategies like "Computing from the East to the West" and satellite internet, injecting strong momentum into the building of a powerful cyber nation.
Comments