CPC Suzhou Industrial Park Working Committee held its annual enlarged meeting on January 13 to review the work in 2014, analyze the current situation, and assign tasks for year 2015. The local Party leaders urged the officials and Party members to have a good grasp of their tasks and to work hard to create innovation capabilities, to further deepen reform and innovation, to reinforce the role of innovation as a driving force, to improve both quality and efficiency, and to contribute to the sustainable, healthy, and solid economic and social development.

In spite of the changing and complicated macro environment in 2014, SIP managed to maintain economic stability and growth, to resort to innovation for sustainability, to be the first to realize reform breakthroughs, and to coordinate among economy, politics, culture, society, ecology, and Party construction. Taking its 20th anniversary as a new start, the government introduces a series of initiatives to improve SIP's functions, status, and brand influence, demonstrates the fruits of two-decade continuous construction and development, centers on the principles of serving the people, being pragmatic, and implementing clean governance, and calls for 35,000 Party members of 110 organizations to learn and practice the Party's mass line. The government expects that the estimated annual GDP in 2014, the total retail sales of consumer goods, and the per capita disposable income of urban residents would increase by 8.4%, 13.4%, and 9% respectively over the previous year to 200 billion, 31.5 billion, and 53,400 yuan.

Wang Xiang, Standing Committee member of CPC Suzhou Municipal Committee and Secretary of CPC SIP Working Committee, spoke at the meeting. He recognized the excellent performance in last year and asked the officials to have a clear understanding of current challenges and problems as well. He also asked them to learn the important speeches of General Secretary Xi Jinping of the CPC Central Committee in order to understand the overall requirements and mainstream theories of this new era. "2015 is an important year for the country to deepen reforms," he said. "It marks the start of applying the rule by law in the entire country and the end of China's 12th Five-Year Plan. We should get a clear picture of the new situation, keep exploring new growth sources, and manage to create new edges for economic and social development."

Wang said SIP should stick to reform and innovation, introduce more progressive opening-up strategy, and carry out comprehensive reform experiments on a larger scale. "We should reinforce Party construction, gain a deep understanding of Secretary Xi's eight requirements on being strict with Party organization under new situations, take Party construction as number one political task, focus on ruling Party organizations by law, keep innovating Party construction theories, methods, and mechanism, emphasize rule by law by learning Singapore's experience of social governance, and bring the rule by law to the next level in SIP so as to lead in the field." Other tasks include continuously promoting transformation and upgrading, centering development on technological innovation, realizing transformation and development by innovating system and mechanism, regulating transformation and development with governance initiatives, securing transformation and development with solid Party construction, enriching city functions, improving city image and content, building eco-city and protecting environment, making SIP a more suitable place for living and working, boosting livelihood, carrying out Party's mass line, investing in projects beneficial to most people, and keeping increasing regional integration, people's income, and public service.

Yang Zhiping, Deputy Secretary of CPC SIP Working Committee and Director of SIP Administrative Committee, presided over the meeting. The participants included the leaders of both committees, chiefs of SIP government departments and offices, heads of agencies, companies, sub-district offices, CPC community working committees, as well as representatives of Party members, overseas returnees, local industrial associations and alliances, local authorities, and state-owned enterprises.