The National Development and Reform Commission listed the Guangzhou Development District (GDD) among the third group of regions to work together with European partners to advance China-Europe regional policy cooperation from 2021 to 2023.

There are now 126 European-funded enterprises in the GDD, many of which are set up by the world's top 500 enterprises like Siemens, AstraZeneca, Mars, Carl Zeiss and Schneider. These projects involve a total investment of $1.56 billion and the actual use of foreign investment has reached $840 million.

Meanwhile, 37 Huangpu enterprises are invested in Europe. Kingfa Sci & Tech has set up a European branch in Germany, and Guangzhou Haozhi Industrial has bought Swiss Infranor.

In terms of scientific and technological cooperation, the GDD has collaborated with the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine to jointly construct an international innovation research institute.

The district also operates a Russian talent information platform that targets the Commonwealth of Independent States in Eastern Europe. It has forged a partnership with Lomonosov Moscow State University and the National Technical University of Ukraine to attract eastern European talents.

As for the quality of living, GDD signed a strategic cooperation agreement with a Barcelona hospital to bring in advanced medical technology in 2018, and established the ISA Science City International School based on British educational resources.