China's Guangdong Province aims to become global industrial and sci-tech innovation hub

China

China's Guangdong Province is striving to establish itself as a global industrial and sci-tech innovation hub by promoting the synergistic advancement of industry and technology, along with the development of new quality productive forces, according to China Central Television.

Guangdong's GDP reached 13.57 trillion yuan (around US$1.88 trillion) in 2023, ranking first in the country for the 35th consecutive year. The province is home to over 18 million business entities, with 7.8 million enterprises accounting for one-seventh of the country's total.

In 2024, Guangdong will focus on expanding investment, advancing consumption, and stabilizing foreign trade to achieve a 5-percent economic growth target, said Governor Wang Weizhong. "We strived to promote project financing. Last year, industrial investment across the province grew by 22.2 percent, marking a double-digit growth for 36 consecutive months, and investment in technology upgrading registered a 22.4 percent growth, reaching a six-year record high," he added.

During the first two months of this year, Guangdong's economy continued to grow, with a 10.6 percent increase in industry, 6.1 percent growth in consumption, 4.3 percent rise in investment, and a 24.9 percent increase in imports and exports.

Guangdong is home to 71,000 industrial enterprises with an annual main business revenue of 20 million yuan or more and 75,000 high-tech firms, both leading the country in terms of numbers. The province's regional innovative capacity has ranked first in China for seven consecutive years.

Moving forward, Guangdong will explore new quality productive forces and advance industrial innovation through sci-tech innovation. "We will accelerate the development of integrated circuits, new energy storage, new energy vehicles, low-altitude economy, and artificial intelligence to build them into 500 billion-level or trillion-level industrial clusters," said Governor Wang. "We will speed up the establishment of a whole-process innovation chain from basic research, technology upgrading, commercialization of research achievements to scientific and technological finance and talent support, aiming to build an industrial and sci-tech innovation hub with global influence."