The Belt and Road Initiative, a high-priority endeavor for Wuxi, has brought great opportunity to this city. Wuxi enterprises invested in 1,073 overseas projects by the end of 2018, with agreed investment amounting to $11.6 billion. A total of 302 projects were agreed with Belt and Road countries, with investment reaching $1.97 billion.

"Wuxi will fully implement the Foreign Investment Law that was approved on March 15, and further promote foreign investment in the city as well as high-quality development of the city's economy," the mayor said.

Wuxi has approved operations for more than 14,000 foreign enterprises since reform and opening-up began 40 years ago, with registered capital of $109.5 billion in agreement. A total of 101 Fortune 500 companies set up 197 enterprises in the city. Thirty-two multinationals located their headquarters and functional departments in Wuxi, while seven foreign banks own branches there.

Foreign enterprises account for less than 4 percent of total enterprises in Wuxi, but contribute around 40 percent of industrial output value, over 60 percent of import and export value and one-third of the city's foreign taxation last year.

To realize the city's vision in leading high-technology and innovation sectors, Wuxi introduced 117,000 high-level talents, 12,000 overseas returnees and 310,000 high-skilled talents to the city, the mayor added.