A batch of enterprises relocated from Wenzhou and Xuzhou have taken root here, and numerous small workshops have grown into industry leaders… Xiaoxian County, this “border town” in northern Anhui, seized the opportunity presented by the convergence of multiple strategies such as the Yangtze River Delta integration and the construction of the Xuzhou metropolitan area during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, propelling its machinery manufacturing industry, one of its two leading industries, to achieve a remarkable leap from “enterprise clustering” to “industrial chain agglomeration,” and then to “intelligent leapfrogging.”
From January to September 2025, the output value of Xiaoxian County’s machinery manufacturing industry reached 1.48 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.47%, of which the output value of the precision parts industry cluster reached 1.176 billion yuan, with an even higher growth rate of 29%.
</ … Behind this achievement lies Xiaoxian County's precise planning and unremitting efforts in industrial development. Finding a "circle" and clustering together chains: Stepping into the workshop of Anhui Shengjiuding Auto Parts Co., Ltd., located in the Xiaoxian Economic Development Zone, robotic arms move rhythmically on the automated production line, and batches of hydraulic cylinders for European heavy trucks are rolling off the line in an orderly fashion. This company, with over ten years of experience, relocated here from Wenzhou in 2022, and is a typical example of the "business-to-business" and "hometown-to-hometown" model. Leveraging its location as the "western gateway to Xuzhou," Xiaoxian County has precisely targeted two major opportunities: the industrial spillover from the Yangtze River Delta region and the supporting needs of Xuzhou's trillion-yuan-level equipment manufacturing industrial cluster. It has carried out targeted "chain-style undertaking" around the "Xiaoxian Machinery Manufacturing Industry Development Plan (2024-2027)." Simultaneously, Xiaoxian County has established "Entrepreneur Reception Days" and "Private Entrepreneur Symposiums," resolving over 900 enterprise requests in 2024. It also pioneered the "Hero Loan per Mu" in the city, issuing over 1.3 billion yuan in loans to high-quality enterprises in the first three quarters of 2024. With this precise and targeted support, by the end of 2024, the Xiaoxian Precision Parts Industrial Cluster had attracted over 100 companies, forming specialized platforms such as the Huaihai Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Park and the Auto Parts Industrial Park, generating annual sales revenue of approximately 2 billion yuan. This represents a cluster upgrade from "physical clustering" to "chemical fusion." **Establishing an "enclave" for collaborative talent development.** Industrial agglomeration is only the first step; innovation is the engine of sustainable development. However, for counties in northern Anhui, "difficulty in attracting and retaining talent" remains a persistent pain point. After relocating from Xuzhou back to its hometown, Anhui Haishang Inverter Technology Co., Ltd. saw a significant increase in output value, but its R&D bottlenecks became increasingly prominent. The turning point came from the "talent enclave" model. In 2023, Xiaoxian established the "Yangtze River Delta City Joint Innovation Space" in the Shanghai G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor. Haishang Inverter relocated its entire R&D center to Shanghai, quickly attracting high-level talent and launching new products to enter overseas markets. This collaborative model of "Shanghai R&D, Xiaoxian transformation" has solved the dilemma of attracting talent for high-tech enterprises in the county. Recently, the development zone has also established an academician workstation, a postdoctoral workstation, and a joint R&D center. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the number of high-tech enterprises in the county increased significantly, with 18 new enterprises added in 2024, ranking first in Suzhou City in terms of application growth rate. Using a good "yardstick," both quantity and quality have improved. With a cluster foundation and innovation momentum, Xiaoxian County has begun to focus on promoting the overall leap of the industrial ecosystem, and the "output per mu as the measure" reform is a key measure. This reform uses a comprehensive evaluation system of enterprise efficiency to measure large-scale industrial enterprises, classifying enterprises into four categories: A, B, C, and D, and implementing a "differentiated" policy in the allocation of resource elements. This "yardstick" not only considers scale but also emphasizes "high-value" indicators such as tax revenue per mu, revenue per mu, R&D investment, and talent density, forcing enterprises to transform towards "high-end, intelligent, and green" development. For high-quality enterprises, banks provide customized financial products and simplify loan approval processes; for inefficient enterprises, they use factor costs to force them to transform and upgrade or exit the market in an orderly manner. In 2024, the tax revenue per mu of participating large-scale industrial enterprises in Xiaoxian County reached 125,200 yuan, and the revenue per mu reached 2,258,900 yuan; the added value of the county's manufacturing industry accounted for as high as 91.3% of the total industrial output above designated size. Its reform practice was selected as a typical and excellent practice case of "judging success by output per mu" reform nationwide. From precise chain-based integration to open enclave innovation, and then to using "judging success by output per mu" to promote overall upgrading, in the five years of the "14th Five-Year Plan," Xiaoxian County's machinery manufacturing industry has taken steady steps, forging a clear development path and providing a vivid and referable model for many counties facing similar situations.
