Bright prospects for photonics industry

Suzhou has a solid foundation in developing the photonics industry. CHINA DAILY

Suzhou New District, or SND, is home to nearly 250 enterprises in the photonics industry, with an industrial scale exceeding 60 billion yuan ($8.5 billion).

The SND is striving to create a more business-friendly environment for enterprises in the photonics sector with high-quality services and a perfect industry ecosystem.

An optoelectronic industrial park is currently under construction in the Suzhou science and technology town that will bring together government, industry, academia and capital, creating a photon industry cluster worth 100 billion yuan.

Taihu Lake Photon Center, a production and research-oriented park for companies in the photonics industry, is expected to be completed by the end of this year, creating a landmark development carrier with a total construction area of more than 100,000 square meters.

"We have upgraded the Taihu photonics science and technology park, launched the construction of a high-quality talent community in Taihu Science City, and plan a 2-square-kilometer area for photonics innovation," said a local official.

Since August last year, the SND has released a series of favorable policies to speed up the development of the photonics industry.

For example, it launched an investment fund of 10 billion yuan to support innovation in the photonics industry; the district grants up to 200 million yuan in phased assistance for the establishment or restructuring of national key laboratories; it awards up to 50 million yuan and 10 million yuan to support the introduction of leading talents and teams of innovation and entrepreneurship respectively; and the SND also gives one-to-one support to domestic and foreign talents such as Nobel Prize winners, academicians and top science and technology award holders.

The Lion Mountain Quantum Computing and Quantum Detection Frontier Laboratory of Nanjing University and the Advanced Sensing and Imaging Technology Industry Research Institute have also been launched to explore a new path of "independent control and cooperation".

Taihu Lake Photon Center is seen as crucial to the development of the photonics industry in Suzhou.

"We will continue to promote the deep integration of the industrial chain, innovation chain, talent chain and fund chain, and strive to achieve a photonics industry revenue scale of more than 100 billion yuan by 2025," said an official in the district.

Photonics is one of the key industries of the 21st century. Suzhou has a solid foundation for developing the photonics industry, with strong growth momentum and advantages in innovative resources. At present, the scale of the photonics industry in the city has exceeded 360 billion yuan, of which the core segment has achieved an output value of over 60 billion yuan, forming a complete industrial chain from photon generation and transmission to application.