A major collaboration between the governments of China and Singapore, Suzhou Industrial Park (“SIP”) serves as an important window for the world to understand the progress achieved by China and Jiangsu province.
29 years since its establishment, SIP has adhered to the principles of “integrating industry with the city” and consistently executed its long-term vision. It is the only provincial-level headquarters within the economic area for foreign companies in Jiangsu. Furthermore, it has been designated as a “National Base for Overseas High-level Talents for Innovation and Entrepreneurship” and an “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base for Overseas Talents,” achieving an impressive seven consecutive wins in the comprehensive assessment of National Economic Development Zones.
As one of the few regions in China that maintains overlapping functions of a National Economic Development Zone, National High-tech Zone, Free Trade Experimental Zone, and Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone, SIP is home to two major national advanced manufacturing clusters: nanomaterials and biopharmaceuticals, along with high-end medical equipment. It has also established major innovation platforms such as the Suzhou Laboratory, National Biopharmaceutical Technology Innovation Center, National Third-Generation Semiconductor Technology Innovation Center, and the National New Generation Artificial Intelligence Innovation Development Pilot Zone. SIP has been recognised as a National Demonstration Base for Industrialization and one of the first National-level Demonstration Zones for Building an Intellectual Property Powerhouse. These achievements have marked a breakthrough in transforming the industrial park into an innovation-driven hub.
On July 5, 2023, during his visit to SIP, President Xi Jinping emphasized the need to strengthen the integration between scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, fostering deep collaboration between enterprises, universities, and research institutions. The goal is to strive for creating a world-class high-tech SIP that excels in open innovation.
Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (“XJTLU”) was established in 2006 through a partnership between Xi’an Jiaotong University and the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom. It is a distinctive, independent international university and the largest Sino-foreign cooperative university in China.
Currently, XJTLU comprises 19 schools and two teaching centers, offering a total of 48 undergraduate programmes, 64 master’s programmes, and 16 Ph.D. research programmes. It focuses on developing emerging interdisciplinary subjects such as artificial intelligence, intelligent manufacturing, biomedicine statistics, and microelectronics science. The university has over 23,000 registered students, including nearly 5,000 master’s and Ph.D. students. It boasts a faculty of around 1,600 professionals, with over 40% being foreign nationals.
Guided by future trends and its unique features, XJTLU has implemented three education models. First, the XJTLU 1.0 education model focuses on cultivating international professional elites and creating its own education model and quality assurance system. Second, the XJTLU 2.0 model aims to foster internationally oriented industry elites through an integrated education approach. Lastly, the XJTLU 3.0 education model fosters an innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystem in education, research, and industry.
Baidu is a leading AI company with strong Internet foundation. Baidu is one of the very few companies in the world that offers a full AI stack, encompassing an infrastructure that consists of AI chips, deep learning framework, core AI capabilities, as well as an open AI platform to facilitate wide application and usage. Baidu has been named by international organizations as one of the top four leading global AI companies. With its mission to “make the complicated world simpler through technology”, Baidu promotes constant technological innovation, and is committed to being a top global technology company which best understands users’ needs and enables their growth.
Baidu was founded on January 1, 2000. Robin Li, Baidu’s Co-founder and CEO, was awarded a U.S. patent for his development of the Rankdex site-scoring algorithm for search engine page rankings, making China one of only four countries in the world that has developed core search engine technology, along with the United States, Russia, and South Korea.
Based on our search engine, Baidu has developed AI capabilities including voice, images, knowledge graph, and natural language processing. For the past ten years, Baidu has been investing in cutting-edge fields such as deep learning, conversational AI operating systems, autonomous driving, and AI chips.
Baidu Brain integrates the company’s general AI capabilities, making available nearly 1400 AI capabilities. Baidu Kunlun 1, a cloud-to-edge AI chip, currently provides computing power for search functions, assisting AI cloud ecosystem partners, and serving a wide variety of AI scenarios, offering high performance with high cost efficiency. The new generation 7-nm chip Kunlun II has begun mass production, with processing power three times that of the previous generation. For algorithms, PaddlePaddle is the first deep learning framework developed in China. Equivalent to an operating system in the era of AI, it has attracted 5.35 million developers and served 200,000 enterprises. For five consecutive years, Baidu has held the most AI-related patents and has filed the most AI-related patent applications in China.
Baidu has established leading advantages in AI computing power, algorithms, open platforms, and developer ecosystem, together forming Baidu AI Cloud’s differentiating competitiveness — “Integration of Cloud and Intelligence” — currently undergoing accelerating strong growth. Baidu AI Cloud is ranked No. 1 in China’s AI public cloud market. Baidu AI Cloud’s leading products, technologies, and solutions are being adopted by sectors including smart manufacturing, smart financial services, smart city, smart energy, and smart healthcare. Baidu’s ACE Transportation Engine is the world’s first full-stack intelligent transportation solution that integrates vehicle, road, and mobility.