Progress on the SIP was slowed by a host of difficulties, and meanwhile, outsiders came to assume (unfairly, according to the city government) that Suzhou New District had been set up in a deliberate effort to rival the Industrial Park.
然而園區開發過程迭生波折，外界認為蘇州政府故意成立「新區」來和「園區」分庭抗禮，讓蘇州政府頗覺冤枉。