Suzhou is approved to create the country's first blockchain development pilot zone

As an important breakthrough for independent innovation of core technologies in my country, blockchain is listed as one of the seven key digital economy industries in the Outline of the National 14th Five-Year Plan. Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially replied to support Suzhou in establishing a blockchain development pilot zone. This is the first national blockchain development pilot zone officially approved in the country.

As a new type of database software that integrates multiple technologies such as distributed networks, encryption technology, and smart contracts, blockchain has the characteristics of transparent data, resistance to tampering, and traceability. It is expected to solve the trust and security issues in cyberspace, promote the Internet from transmitting information to transmitting value, and reconstruct the information industry system.

my country has a good foundation for blockchain technology application and industrial development. In June this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Promotion of Blockchain Technology Application and Industrial Development", encouraging local governments to build blockchain development pilot zones in combination with the concept of "regulatory sandbox", and Suzhou actively participated in the creation.

In recent years, Suzhou has taken the lead in planning and solidly promoted the construction of the blockchain industry ecosystem, formulated and issued the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Blockchain Technology and Industry Innovation (2020-2022)", and gradually formed an integrated innovation path of "government-led, leading enterprises-led, research institutions-supported, and innovative applications-focused", and continuously precipitated and built the technology and industrial advantages of the pilot zone. With Xiangcheng District as the core development zone, Suzhou Industrial Park and High-tech Zone as the innovation application zone, and along the "Shanghai-Nanjing" and "Sujiahang" as the integrated application belts, the blockchain "one core, two zones, two belts" development space pattern has taken shape.

At present, the city has gathered 160 blockchain companies represented by Suzhou Xiangcheng Blockchain Technology Co., Ltd., Suzhou Tongji Blockchain Research Institute Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Tongfudun Technology Co., Ltd., etc., which have driven nearly 300 related technology application companies, 30 companies have been selected into the Jiangsu Provincial Blockchain Key Enterprise Database, 4 companies have been selected into Suzhou's "leading goose" and "leading goose cultivation" enterprises, and 38 blockchain information service registration projects of the Central Cyberspace Administration have been completed, accounting for 44.4% of the total number of registrations in the province, and its influence in Jiangsu and the country is increasing day by day. The "White Paper on the Evaluation of the Development Level of Blockchain in Chinese Cities" recently released by CCID Blockchain Research Institute shows that Suzhou has jumped from 18th in 2019 to 4th in 2021, and the comprehensive strength of the blockchain industry has risen rapidly.

Optimistic about the development potential of Suzhou's blockchain industry, leading enterprises are gathering at an accelerated pace. In September this year, the first Tencent digital industry base in the Yangtze River Delta region, the Tencent (Suzhou) Digital Industry Base project with a total investment of 8 billion yuan, was started and laid in Suzhou High-tech Zone. It will form a high-tech enterprise cluster with blockchain and other industries as the core, and further stimulate the vitality of industry application innovation.

"Suzhou will take the construction of the National Blockchain Development Pilot Zone as an opportunity to strengthen coordination with major national development strategies such as manufacturing power, cyber power, digital China, and Yangtze River Delta integration, and accelerate the integration and application innovation of blockchain with the real economy and public services. It will contribute to the construction of a world-leading blockchain industry ecosystem and the realization of leapfrog development in my country through the 'Suzhou Plan'," said Jin Xiaohu, deputy director of the Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology.