WND: A hub for headquarters economy

Wuxi New District (WND) has become a hub for corporate headquarters. Despite making up only 0.27 percent of the 85,000 market entities in the zone, these companies account for over 60 percent of the district's total industrial output value. 

There are currently over 200 corporate headquarters in WND, including 20 provincial-level ones and 20 municipal-level ones, accounting for 40 percent and one-third of Wuxi's total respectively. 

WND has been leveraging its strengths in industries such as integrated circuits, new energy and new energy vehicles, high-end intelligent equipment manufacturing, the internet of things, biomedicine, and auto parts to attract companies to set up their headquarters in the district.

Pfeiffer Vacuum, a world-leading supplier of vacuum technology, plans to invest around $50 million to establish its Asia-Pacific headquarters in WND. Guangxi Yuchai Machinery Group has also signed an agreement to build a 1.7-billion-yuan ($246.7 million) headquarters for its hydrogen energy business.

Li Hanyang, chairman of Yuchai, said that the decision to build the headquarters was based on Wuxi's strong economy, complete industrial chain, excellent business environment, and pool of talented professionals.

A machine produced by Guangxi Yuchai MachineryGroup. [Photo/WeChat account: xinwu_wx]

To expand the headquarters economy, WND developed a three-year action plan to attract investment and talents three years ago. Last year, around 150 major industrial projects each backed by more than 1 billion yuan in investment were set up in the district. Among them are 18 projects each with an investment of over 1 billion yuan and five projects each with an investment over 5 billion yuan.