After 18 years of development, the Suzhou Industrial Park in Jiangsu province has evolved from a concept on paper into a mature powerhouse capable of driving the surrounding economy.

Learning from the experiences of developed countries has been a shortcut to success for many economic zones in China. Formed through a partnership between China and Singapore, the Suzhou Industrial Park has been hailed as a successful model for cooperation between nations.

Outside assistance

In 1994, the administrators of the industrial park selected nine young experts to go to Singapore to benefit from the country's vast experience in urban planning and management.

The success of the industrial park can be viewed as a result of the cooperation between China and Singapore. And the so-called Singaporean model has proven fruitful.

Since it first began to take shape, the park has borrowed the experience from Singapore in three aspects: modern urban planning, construction and management; the development of an export-oriented economy; and social public administration, said its administrative committee director Yang Zhiping.

The park has absorbed many of the best features of the Singaporean model in terms of the objective and development pattern, which has pushed the industrial park to become increasingly integrated into the global economic system.

During the last 10 years, more than 2,000 people from the industrial park have been sent to Singapore to receive training, and every one of these was shocked by the meticulousness and rigor as well as scientific and humanized attitude of the Singaporeans.

There still are many things for the leadership of the industrial park to learn from the Singaporean model, as it guides the development of the park in the future.

The park is the biggest cooperative project between the governments of China and Singapore as well as an important window for China's opening-up and reform and a successful paradigm of international cooperation.

It is also one of the fastest-developing and most globally competitive development zones in the world.

The concepts taken from Singapore's model have become the foundation for the park's strategy of going global.

Going global

In 2010, Jiang Hongkun, having just been appointed Party chief of the Suzhou city committee, embarked on an investigation of the industrial park.

After listening carefully to the introduction of the park's development, he said "the experiences and management model of the industrial park should be effectively expanded to the entire city."

"We should also widen our vision to let this model be applied in Jiangsu and other places in China as well," he said.

Relying on its 18 years of experience, the park is now driving its own development rather than relying on outside forces.

The experience of the Singaporean model has been internalized by the industrial park and is now ready for export.

The establishment of the Suzhou-Suqian Industrial Park in 2006 symbolized the beginning of the Suzhou Industrial Park's going global strategy.

"With the development and upgrading of industries, the park itself cannot meet the increasing demands, thus new areas are required to carry on the development," said the person in charge of the industrial park's asset administration office, who declined to be named. As a result, "linked development" with other regions came into being.

"The intercity urban development was the culmination of the industrial park's 18-year development because it has both absorbed the external experiences and taken into consideration local conditions," the person said.

"It is a 'high-speed railway' of regional economic development and also an ideal way to explore more external opportunities," he said.

Another example of intercity cooperation happened in late 2011, when an agreement was signed in Hefei, Anhui province, to build the Suzhou-Chuzhou Modern Industrial Park project through the joint efforts of the Suzhou Industrial Park and the municipal government of Chuzhou.

The signing of the project agreement marked the start of construction on an Anhui version of the Suzhou Industrial Park. The Anhui park covers 36 sq km and has investments totaling 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion).

The industrial park was the largest project proposal Chuzhou has ever introduced, and was expected to drive a regional investment of 130 billion yuan.

As a leader among similar economic zones, the Suzhou park has had no other examples to follow during its efforts to go global, and the industrial park has to test each step before actually taking it. All models for going global, whether government-backed or market-based, have to be rolled out gradually.

The Suzhou-Suqian Industrial park has become a new model for trans-regional cooperation, and the Su-Tong Science and Technology Park has become a paradigm for commercial cooperation.

Contact the writer at zhoufurong@chinadaily.com.cn.