Table 1: Total GDP and Output of Major industries

Development Zones
The development zones see the greatest economic growth in the city and are the “locomotive of Wuxi’s open economy” (Wuxi Municipal 1996). Development zones were created as centres of economic activity within the city. The zones comprise of state-owned large and medium sized enterprises and international corporations. Each zone or “park” is designed to provide companies with business and community services and infrastructure. At present, Wuxi has four national-level and ten provincial-level development zones.

One of the major development zones is the Wuxi High-Tech Industrial Development Zone. A national level zone approved by the State Council, this zone was established in November 1992 and specialises in the manufacture, production and exportation of electronics, information technology (IT) and software, electro-machinery and auto parts, bioengineering and pharmaceuticals, and new materials.


Regional Plans

A regional plan, the Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou Plan (SWC Plan), was implemented as part of Jiangsu’s Province’s Urban System Plan in 2001 to coordinate the cities’ development and achieve regional integration (Luo and Shen 2005, p. 3). The objectives of the plan include regional economic development, urban and regional competitiveness, and improvement of the region’s relationship with Shanghai (Luo and Shen 2005, pp. 3-6). Due to problems with conflicting interests of stakeholders in the three cities of the SWC Plan, Wuxi developed its own plan, Wuxi Development Strategic Plan, in which the city changed the region by removing Suzhou and replacing it with Taizhou. In this plan, Wuxi became the leading city in the region. The city was also able to expand the areas allocated for development through the plan (Luo and Shen 2005, p. 16).

Major Projects
Wuxi has two projects with the objective to reduce the amount of time needed for customs clearance. One project is “E-Port”, a computer software program that will enable import and export companies to complete commodity inspection and customs declaration procedures over the Internet. Another is the launch of the Shanghai-Wuxi and Shenzhen-Wuxi Air-and-Land Coordinated Transportation (IOWMPG).

As part of an initiative to develop Wuxi’s modern logistics industry, the city has planned and implemented the construction of “Two Parks and One Centre” (IOWMPG). The parks will include Wuxi General Logistics Park, Jiangyin Yangtze River Port Logistics Park, and Wuxi Port Logistics Centre. A project to build an integrated waste management system, where the waste constituents are recycled and reused, will be implemented in Wuxi New District from January 2006 to December 2007 to resolve the city’s waste water issues (UNEP).

Major Issues & Constraints to Problem Solving
The major issues within the city of Wuxi and the region of Jiangsu Province include inequitable income distribution, disposal of waste water and solid waste, and constraints to problem solving in the local and regional governments.
Intense development and economic growth has benefited Wuxi and Suzhou, two prosperous cities in southern Jiangsu Province, but there remains a significant income disparity between these two cities and other areas of the province (Jiangsu). For example, Wuxi’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per-capita in 2001 was RMB 31,246 while Jiangsu Province’s GDP per-capita in the same year was RMB 12,933 (IPDFS and Demographia 2005). With increasing industrialisation and development, disposal of waste water and solid waste has become a problem. Three waste water treatment plants have been installed to resolve this issue, but increasing industrialisation and improving living standards means that the quantity of solid waste is expected to rise. The project to build an integrated waste management system is expected to fix this problem (UNEP).

The regional plan, SWC Plan, was implemented by the provincial government to coordinate the development of the province’s three subordinate cities (Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou), but the plan was ineffective due to the following constraints to problem solving:
• Conflict of interests among the three cities and competition for investment and infrastructure development;
• No coordinating mechanisms including implementation and administration measures for the plan;
• City governments were unable to “translate” the plan into concrete plans due to the unfeasibility of its planning contents;
• And power distribution and conflicts among government departments (Figure 1) (Luo and Shen 2005, pp. 12-13)