Jiangsu
Jiangsu has an extensive irrigation system supporting its agriculture, which is based primarily on rice and wheat, followed by maize and sorghum. Main cash crops include cotton, soybeans, peanuts, rape, sesame, ambary hemp, and tea. Other products include peppermint, spearmint, bamboo, medicinal herbs, apples, pears, peaches, loquats, ginkgo. Silkworms also form an important part of Jiangsu's agriculture, with the Lake Taihu region to the south a major base of silk production in China. Jiangsu is also an important producer of freshwater fish and other aquatic products.
Jiangsu has coal, petroleum, and natural gas deposits, but its most significant mineral produces are non-metal minerals such as halite (rock salt), sulfur, phosphorus, as well as marble. The salt mines of Huaiyin has more than 0.4 trillion tonnes of deposits, one of the highest in China.
Jiangsu is historically oriented towards light industries such as textiles and food industry. After 1949 Jiangsu has also developed heavy industries such as chemical industry and construction materials. The economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping has greatly benefited southern cities, especially Suzhou and Wuxi, which outstrip the provincial capital Nanjing in total output. In the eastern outskirts of Suzhou, Singapore has built the Suzhou Industrial Park, a flagship of China-Singapore cooperation and the only industrial park in China that is in its entirety the investment of one single foreign country.
Jiangsu is very wealthy among the provinces of China, with the second highest total gross domestic product (after Guangdong Province). Its GDP per capita was 14500 Renminbi in 2002, but geographical disparity is great, and southern cities like Suzhou and Wuxi have GDP per capita around twice of the provincial average, making south Jiangsu one of the most prosperous regions in China.
Economic indicators in 2003:
Gross domestic product: 1245.18 billion Renminbi
Gross domestic product per capita: 16796 Renminbi
Gross domestic product growth rate: 13.5%
Gross domestic product share by sector (primary/secondary/tertiary): 8.9% / 54.5% / 36.6%
Gross domestic product share by sector (public/private): 49.0% / 51.0%
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