As an old industrial base in Northern Jiangsu, Xuzhou City in Jiangsu Province has accelerated its industrial transformation in recent years. Whether it can successfully join the "Trillion-Yuan GDP Club" by 2025 and achieve a "zero breakthrough" for Northern Jiangsu has drawn significant attention. On February 2, 2026, the suspense was finally resolved. According to the "2025 Xuzhou Economic Performance Report" released by the Xuzhou Municipal Bureau of Statistics, based on the unified GDP calculation results, Xuzhou's regional GDP reached 995.722 billion yuan in 2025, representing a 5.8% year-on-year increase calculated at constant prices. This indicates that Xuzhou's aspiration to become a "Trillion-Yuan City" will need to be pursued in 2026.

It is understood that in 2022, after being approved to build a national innovation demonstration zone for sustainable development, Xuzhou proposed fostering "343" innovative industrial clusters. Three dominant innovative industrial clusters—construction machinery, green and low-carbon energy, and new materials—have become the pillars of Xuzhou's industrial economy. Recent materials provided by the Xuzhou Municipal Party Committee's Propaganda Department show that in 2025, four of Xuzhou's industrial clusters—construction machinery, green and low-carbon energy, digital economy, and food and agricultural product processing—each exceeded 100 billion yuan in scale. The total scale of innovative industrial clusters is projected to reach 850 billion yuan. Among them, the construction machinery industry was approved as one of the nation's first advanced manufacturing clusters, ranking first in domestic sales for 17 types of main machinery products and achieving over 90% self-sufficiency across the entire industrial chain.

Steady Progress Toward the "Trillion-Yuan City" Goal Data shows that in 2024, Xuzhou's regional GDP reached 953.7 billion yuan, positioning the city at the threshold of the "Trillion-Yuan GDP Club." On January 21, 2026, during the sixth session of the 17th Xuzhou Municipal People's Congress, Mayor Shen Junfeng, while delivering the government work report, only disclosed that "the regional GDP for 2025 is expected to grow by approximately 5.8%." The latest data from the Xuzhou Municipal Bureau of Statistics confirms that the city's GDP for 2025 was 995.722 billion yuan. Specifically, the primary industry added value was 79.246 billion yuan, up 3% year-on-year; the secondary industry added value was 365.629 billion yuan, up 3.5%; and the tertiary industry added value was 550.847 billion yuan, up 8%. In 2025, the value-added of Xuzhou's industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 6.8% year-on-year. Among 38 major industrial categories, the chemical fiber manufacturing, food and agricultural product processing, and electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing sectors saw value-added growth of 10.5%, 13.1%, and 18.6%, respectively. The value-added of high-tech manufacturing above designated size grew by 9%, 2.2 percentage points faster than the overall industrial growth.

As the leading economy among the "Five Tigers of Northern Jiangsu," Xuzhou has long held the sixth position in Jiangsu Province's economic rankings. As early as 2021, Xuzhou proposed in its 14th Five-Year Plan to "strive to join the trillion-yuan city club by 2025." Subsequently, this goal was included in the city's Government Work Report for four consecutive years. In March 2025, Xuzhou held a work promotion meeting to mobilize the city to focus on high-quality development of a regional central city and steadily advance toward the trillion-yuan target. At that time, Song Lewei, Secretary of the Xuzhou Municipal Party Committee, stated that making "steady progress toward a trillion-yuan city" should be the annual work theme, aiming to contribute more to Jiangsu Province's overall development. On the afternoon of January 21, 2026, when discussing the "trillion-yuan冲刺" topic during a Tongshan District delegation discussion, Song Lewei expressed a clear stance: be realistic and let nature take its course. "Don't be fixated on this number; don't be burdened by it. Develop as we should, steadily and solidly."

This attitude reflects Xuzhou's maturity and pragmatism in development philosophy, representing an active move away from a "GDP-only" mindset. Yuan Shuai, an expert at Zhongjing Media Think Tank and Deputy Director of the Investment Department at the China Academy of Urban Development, believes that Xuzhou's ability to shift focus from the trillion-yuan GDP obsession back to the essence of solid development is a rational return. In Yuan's view, this approach indicates that Xuzhou places greater emphasis on the substance and quality of economic development, no longer judging success solely by GDP figures. Instead, it prioritizes sustainability and inclusivity, striving to enhance industrial competitiveness, improve livelihoods, and optimize the ecological environment through diligent work, aiming for comprehensive and coordinated economic and social development.

Diversified Investment Promotion for Major Industrial Projects "The gap of 42.78 billion yuan from the trillion-yuan mark, while seemingly small, actually reveals that the core drivers supporting Xuzhou's economic breakthrough remain insufficient," Yuan Shuai noted. As a traditional heavy industrial city, Xuzhou initially relied on resource-based industries like coal and steel. Although it has been promoting industrial transformation in recent years, traditional industries still account for a relatively high proportion. "The growth potential of these industries is relatively limited, making it difficult to provide sustained, strong incremental momentum."

According to the 2025 economic performance report, Xuzhou also faces challenges due to declining fixed-asset investment. Data from the Xuzhou Municipal Bureau of Statistics shows that fixed-asset investment in 2025 fell by 11.9% year-on-year. By sector, investment in the primary industry dropped by 27.4%, the secondary industry by 11.5%, and the tertiary industry by 11.9%. It has been noted that "prioritizing investment promotion as a top task" is a key focus for Xuzhou in 2026. In his government work report on January 21, Mayor Shen Junfeng proposed that Xuzhou will optimize the integrated工作机制 for investment promotion, strengthen three specialized teams for industrial, technological, and service sector investment, host the 29th Investment Promotion Conference, and aim to attract over 1,000 projects with investment exceeding 100 million yuan annually. Shen stated that Xuzhou will target central state-owned enterprises, leading private firms, and listed companies, expand diversified investment methods such as "clusters, chain leaders, scenarios, platforms, and funds," establish a city-wide resource allocation mechanism, and secure 120 new projects each with investment over 1 billion yuan, striving for greater breakthroughs in projects exceeding 5 billion yuan.

Materials provided by the Xuzhou Municipal Party Committee's Propaganda Department indicate that in the 2026 layout for major industrial projects, Xuzhou plans 248 projects in dominant industrial clusters to consolidate traditional strengths, 55 projects in emerging industrial clusters to cultivate new动能, and 34 projects in future industrial clusters for forward-looking布局. Yuan Shuai分析认为 that although Xuzhou's emerging industries have achieved some development, they have not yet formed a sufficiently large cluster effect, and their contribution to economic growth is not fully realized. Particularly in high-end manufacturing and the digital economy, there remains a gap compared to advanced domestic cities. "Attracting leading enterprises with core competitiveness and landing landmark industrial projects are essential to provide sufficient support for breaking the trillion-yuan GDP threshold."

Building a "4+X" Future Industrial System Data shows that by the end of 2025, Xuzhou had registered approximately 300 new-type R&D institutions. Throughout 2025, 13 enterprises in the city were recognized as Jiangsu (Potential) "Unicorns," and 50 enterprises were designated as Jiangsu "Gazelles." Nearly a thousand enterprises applied for high-tech enterprise status, and over 2,200 were included in the roster of科技型 SMEs. It is understood that as early as 2022, Xuzhou proposed fostering "343" innovative industrial clusters: focusing on building three dominant clusters (construction machinery, green and low-carbon energy, new materials), accelerating the cultivation of four emerging clusters (digital economy, integrated circuits and ICT,医药健康, safety and emergency response), and upgrading three特色 clusters (high-quality steel, high-end textiles, food and agricultural product processing).

According to Zhao Fei, Deputy Director of the Xuzhou Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, using the "343" innovative industrial clusters as a lever, Xuzhou's industrial structure has been continuously optimized and upgraded. As Xuzhou's signature industry, the construction machinery sector not only gained approval as a national advanced manufacturing cluster but also achieved top domestic sales for 17 types of main products and over 90% self-sufficiency across the entire industrial chain. Landmark products like the world's largest 4000-ton crawler crane and the world's first 4000-ton all-terrain crane have been launched, demonstrating the robust capabilities of Chinese equipment manufacturing.

Looking toward the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Xuzhou is布局 future industries with a forward-looking vision, aiming to cultivate new quality productive forces as long-term growth poles. Zheng Peng, a fourth-level researcher at the Xuzhou Development and Reform Commission, previously stated that in 2024, the revenue scale of future industry enterprises in Xuzhou reached 20.42 billion yuan and was expected to grow to 31.6 billion yuan in 2025, a 29% year-on-year increase. The deep-earth industry in Xuzhou High-tech Zone was successfully selected as one of the province's first pilot zones for the agglomerated development of future industries, making it the only industry in Northern Jiangsu to receive this honor. Reports indicate that Xuzhou has currently gathered 331 enterprises related to future industries. Based on existing industrial foundations and future trends, Xuzhou has preliminarily planned a "4+X" future industrial system, focusing on developing four growth-oriented future industries—embodied intelligence, deep-earth, hydrogen energy, and bio-manufacturing—while closely tracking a group of前瞻关注类 industries such as空天信息, virtual reality, and atomic-level manufacturing.

"To accelerate its industrial transformation, Xuzhou needs to strengthen the core supporting role of technological innovation," Yuan Shuai stated. Xuzhou should increase investment in R&D, establish more high-level innovation platforms, attract and gather high-end innovative talent, enhance cooperation with universities and research institutions, promote deep integration of industry, academia, research, and application, and accelerate the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements to provide continuous technological support for industrial upgrading.