High tech boosts city's national role

To embrace the nation's Made in China 2025 strategy, Guangzhou, Guangdong province, plans to develop the next-generation IAB industries - information technology, artificial intelligence and biomedicine.

Specific principles and measures to develop the IAB industries were announced by the Guangzhou city government in October. In the plan, Guangzhou said it aims to build itself into a leading demonstration city for the national strategy.

To achieve that goal, the city has launched a package of preferential policies to support the construction of IAB clusters and has set up special funds to attract foreign investment.

Guangzhou's efforts have resulted in a rising number of investments and a large number of enterprises have strengthened their presence in the city.

In September, leading telecom equipment-maker Huawei and Guangzhou's Baiyun district signed an agreement to build a cloud data center, a cloud industry operation center and a cloud industry development platform in the district.

In March, electronics giant Foxconn's industry park for producing next-generation displays broke ground in Zengcheng district, with an investment of 61 billion yuan ($9.22 billion), the company's largest investment in the Chinese mainland in recent years.

Among the IAB sectors, IT is the largest industry in Guangzhou, with annual output value totaling 300 billion yuan ($45 billion).

In recent years, internet giants have set up operations in Pazhou Internet Innovation Zone, a specialist area for IT companies in Haizhu district.

Big names with operations in the zone include Alibaba, VIPshop and Tencent, all of which are top internet companies in China and even the world.

In 2011, Tencent launched a project in Haizhu district's Pazhou zone to launch its emerging WeChat business. Following that first step, other internet giants opened branches or regional offices in Pazhou, which evolved into an industrial zone in 2015.

The zone has a planned area of 370,000 square meters, offering a base for internet and IT companies, including 17 industrial giants.

"We have adjusted the layout of Pazhou Internet Innovation Zone based on companies' requirements," said Tang Shun, an official at the investment promotion office in Haizhu district.

"Companies enjoy the rich talent pool in the district, as renowned universities are located in Haizhu or the neighborhood, such as Sun Yat-sen University and South China University of Technology," Tang added.

In 2017, companies in the zone generated combined sales revenue of 5.9 billion yuan, an increase of 220 percent from 2016. Their fixed-asset investment reached 9.77 billion yuan in total, an increase of 200 percent.

In a new development for Guangzhou's internet sector, Alibaba Cloud announced in November it will launch its industrial internet project in the city.

Using big data and cloud computing technologies, the industrial internet project will serve the manufacturing industry by enabling smart production.

"Guangzhou is one of the best places for the fourth industrial revolution," said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum.

In 2016, the IT industry in Guangzhou generated 300 billion yuan in output value.

The rapid development of new industry patterns has been an important support to the sustained growth of Guangzhou's trade in recent years.

In 2016, Guangzhou's foreign trade via cross-border e-commerce platforms reached 14.68 billion yuan, with year-on-year growth of 120 percent. The volume ranked Guangzhou No 1 among the nation's leading cities.

The value of exports reached 8.65 billion yuan, soaring by 150 percent, while the amount of imports totaled 6.03 billion yuan, growing 83.2 percent.

The city is taking steady steps to attract more investment from global businesses in the fields of new-generation information, new types of displays, high-performance integrated circuits, new electronic components, mobile internet, the internet of things, as well as new-generation network communications.