NANJING, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- East China's Jiangsu, the country's largest manufacturing province, reported annual GDP growth of 7.2 percent in 2017, local authorities said Friday.

The province's GDP surpassed 8.5 trillion yuan (1.33 trillion U.S. dollars) last year, provincial governor Wu Zhenglong announced at the 13th Provincial People's Congress.

Jiangsu is the country's second-largest contributor to the GDP, only behind the province of Guangdong.

Jiangsu has also become China's only province to have three cities -- Suzhou, Nanjing, and newcomer Wuxi -- with a GDP above 1 trillion yuan.

After years of industrial upgrading and structural reform, high-tech companies like Huawei and Alibaba are making considerable investment in Wuxi, and the city has become home to projects related to integrated circuits and the Internet of Things.

"From a traditional manufacturing city that relies on labor and resources to a smart city focusing on intelligent manufacturing, Wuxi's progress demonstrates the transformation of the manufacturing sector in Jiangsu, and even in China," said Huang Qin, executive deputy mayor of Wuxi.