Suzhou investment conference secures over 340 bln yuan in deals

As the 2025 Suzhou Global Investment Conference opened on Saturday, Suzhou City of east China's Jiangsu Province continues to serve as a magnet for foreign investment in China, with over 340 billion yuan in investments poised to unlock new opportunities in the market.

Over 1,200 representatives from global enterprises and investment institutions convened at the Suzhou International Expo Center for the two-day conference, with many sealing deals on the spot to expand their investments in China. A total of 417 projects were signed, amounting to investments exceeding 340 billion yuan.

The event's exhibition area also showcased the city's achievements in new industrialization, including the low-altitude economy, artificial intelligence, robotics, high-end equipment, and biomedicine. The city has put its industrial strengths on display, inviting foreign investors to explore cooperation opportunities. Many foreign representatives reiterated their commitment to the Chinese market.

Tibor Buček, director for international relations at Slovakia's Investment Support Association, attended the event. He said after the conference that they're looking for cooperation in the aircraft industry with China.

"We are producing the biggest amount of the aircraft per capita in the world, you know, because we [have a] population [of] only 5 million, but the aircraft, so we are producing a lot. We are planning to make joint venture with some Chinese company regarding aircraft," he said.

Many of the signed projects were high-investment research and development headquarters, which have become a focus of Suzhou's efforts to attract foreign investment in recent years.

"Our company, we entered the Chinese market 20 years ago. We have now fully localized all the competencies in China. In the future, we want to grow together with the Chinese original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) not only in China, but also from China to global," said Carsten Kneer, Asia-Pacific Vice President of Benecke-Changshun Automotive Interior Materials (Zhangjiagang) Company.

As a key hub for China's economic opening, Suzhou hosts over 19,000 foreign-funded enterprises, with cumulative foreign investment utilization reaching 167 billion U.S. dollars. The city has transitioned from importing European technologies to developing and manufacturing products locally based on Chinese market needs, prompting further investment from multinational companies. In the first quarter of 2025, Suzhou's foreign capital utilization hit 3.53 billion U.S. dollars, up 9 percent year-on-year, including 825 million U.S. dollars from reinvested profits, a 21.9 percent increase.

"In the Chinese market, the iteration speed is very high. On the one hand, we rely on the deep technological accumulation from Germany to support the development of the Chinese market. On the other hand, the new methods and applications introduced during the continuous technological iteration in the Chinese market are also shared globally," said Xie Xiongyan, deputy plant manager of the United Automotive Electronic Systems' Taicang Branch in Taicang City, east China's Jiangsu Province.

Suzhou investment conference secures over 340 bln yuan in deals

Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodriguez said on Sunday that the country is at a critical stage and must achieve national unity, emphasizing that maintaining internal cohesion is of utmost importance.

In a televised address, Rodriguez called on the public to continue trusting the government under the current highly complex political circumstances.

Her statement comes in the wake of a January 3 military operation conducted by the United States, during which Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were taken into custody and flown out of the country.

The operation resulted in at least 100 fatalities.

Rodriguez, who was sworn in as acting president two days later on January 5, framed her appeal for unity against this backdrop of external intervention.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan Minister of Communication and Information Freddy Nanez denounced the U.S. actions as a "war crime of the 21st century" when speaking at an international cultural event on Sunday.

Nanez condemned not only the January 3 airstrikes but also the associated cyber and electromagnetic attacks.

He accused the United States of violating international law through the forced removal of President Maduro and his wife, while attacks on civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities, represent a flagrant breach of humanitarian norms.

He reiterated that the stigmatization and military attacks against Venezuela are driven by economic interests, particularly the desire to control its abundant natural resources.

Venezuelan acting president calls for national unity amid complex situation