Guangzhou tells innovation stories at Bo'ao

The last two speakers at the roadshow, Han Xu and Hu Wen, represented two very striking startups in autonomous driving, a cutting-edge area highly valued by the Guangzhou municipal government.

"With strong support from government leaders we are able to establish partnership with the Guangzhou Automobile Group and the Guangzhou Transportation Group. Together, we believe we can revolutionize human travel through autonomous driving and our car-hailing service will be much safer and cheaper," said Han Xu of JinChi.ai. "And with this, I really encourage you to think about Guangzhou. I feel very lucky to have landed our business in Guangzhou," Han added.

The last speaker, Hu Wen of Pony.ai, said excitedly: "Why Guangzhou? Why did we come here? We believe autonomous service is a complex system, has complex solutions, and we are getting closer to the third stage of autonomous driving. We've been thinking how we can be the top player globally and believe Guangzhou is definitely the key."

Zhou Dailin, a Harvard graduate and engineer at the Guangzhou Urban Planning & Design Survey Research Institute, highlights the internationalization efforts made by her institute. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Right after the roadshow, many foreign guests showed great admiration for Guangzhou's innovations when interviewed by Guangzhou Daily. 

Among these young Guangzhou entrepreneurs might be the next Jack Ma or Pony Ma, said a high executive of a Fortune Global 500 company with Chinese headquarters in Guangzhou.

Dennis Bracy, CEO of the US-China Clean Energy Forum, commented that though he had been familiar with Guangzhou; he was deeply touched by the stories shared at the promotional event and was impressed by the creative way Guangzhou presents itself to the world.

Bracy was greatly surprised to see such a world-class enterprise when he visited WeChat's headquarters in Guangzhou not long ago. Guangzhou should tell more such stories and let the world know how amazing the city is, he told Guangzhou Daily.

Hu Wen, COO of Pony.ai, speaks at the 2018 Conversation between Guangzhou and the World held at the Bo'ao Forum for Asia on April 9. [Photo provided to China Daily]