China Daily -- As corporate creativity plays an increasingly predominant role in economic development, the city of Wuxi is determined to drive its economy to a new high through encouraging local companies to create intellectual property (IP).

According to the Wuxi municipal science and technology bureau, 20 creative projects in the city's manufacturing and new industries won patent awards last year. The projects have brought nearly 8 trillion yuan ($1 trillion) to Wuxi in sales income.

One of the prize-winning projects developed by Zhang Min, professor at Jiangnan University, and his team has been introduced to eight companies producing instant food for export. Since the team's food drying technology was granted IP rights on December 11, 2013, its total sales volume has been accumulated to more than 600 billion yuan.

Professor Zhang's project and eight others solely submitted by Wuxi companies or jointly submitted by Wuxi industries and universities won at this year's merit awards for the China Patent Award in October.

During the first three quarters of 2016, more than 23,000 projects were licensed with IP rights from over 54,000 entries and more than 24,000 works applied for invention patents, making the city a leader in Jiangsu province for IP licensed projects.