On December 30, Nanfang Daily released the large-scale annual special issue “Innovation + -- 2016 Report on the Pearl River Delta Competitiveness”. The survey team consisting of more than 40 reporters visited the innovation and development frontline of the Pearl River Delta (PRD), and held talks with up to 100 experts and entrepreneurs to explore the latest trends of innovation of the PRD in two months.

 

In the written reply of the State Council to the Master Plan of Guangzhou (2011-2020) this year, the word “international” appeared for the first time, reflecting Guangzhou’s positioning lifted to the global and international level for the first time. The report believes that with intense “landing” of international events , Guangzhou has geared into the global innovation network and further highlighted the innovation hub functions. The PRD with Guangzhou and Shenzhen as the leading forces is becoming an international scientific and technological innovation hub heading the provincial and the national development as well.

 

It is noteworthy that data from the report show that Guangzhou’s per capita GDP equals to that of Spain, and the purchasing power parity level has ascended to the level of central cities of developed countries. Guangzhou’s “international status” is obvious.

 

High-end conventions concentrate in Guangzhou; Guangzhou’s innovation hub functions highlighted

 

Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation, International Innovation Conference, International Innovation Festival, Canton Tower Science & Technology Conference, and  Guangzhou Convention of Overseas Chinese Scholars in Science and Technology that has just been concluded.... December is almost Guangzhou’s “Innovation Month.” In the past month, five international events were held in Guangzhou, catching wide attentions.

 

Take the Canton Tower Science & Technology Conference for example. Originally named Android World Global Developers Conference, this conference was sponsored by the International Data Group (IDG) and was used to be held in Shenzhen, another leading city of the PRD. This year it was held in Guangzhou and upgraded to the Global Mobile Developer Conference cum Internet High-level Forum. This forum has attracted celebrities of the global scientific and technological innovation, entrepreneurship and capital fields, for example Xiong Xiaoge, executive vice president of IDG and IDG Capital’s founding partner, Terry Guo, chairman of Foxconn Technology Group, Andrew Yan, chief partner of SAIF Partners and other elites. In two days, the 13 forums were well attended.

 

“Guangzhou will be a leader of scientific and technological innovation,” said Guo who has frequently visited the PRD recently. He said he will invest in more high-tech enterprises in Guangzhou. Xiong Xiaoge also expressed such investment intentions. He said IDG Capital has a dedicated team in Guangzhou to look for projects.

 

From attracting talents to “holding conventions” to luring talents to make innovation and start new businesses, Guangzhou has integrated into the global innovation network and further highlighted its role as the innovation hub. The high-end international conventions, represented by Fortune Global Forum, make Guangzhou a center of information and knowledge exchanges. In the globalization era of information and knowledge, this is new competitiveness of the city.

 

High-tech enterprises snatch market shares; Guangzhou is growing into the international scientific and technological innovation hub

 

In April this year, CISCO made investment in Guangzhou. From the world renowned San Francisco Bay Area to the rising PRD, what will CISCO bring in? In the cooperation blueprint between CISCO and Guangzhou, the future CISCO Smart City Project integrates production, education, research and development, commerce and living, and will be China’s first world leading smart city with the smart manufacturing cloud industry as core and annual output value exceeding RMB100 billion. CISCO will work with its strategic partners to form an industrial innovation cluster with CISCO as core by making use of the cloud computing, big data, smart manufacturing and other technologies.

 

The old-brand Fortune 500 corporation Ericsson has also established two R&D centers in Guangzhou, with a R&D team of nearly 500 members. CISCO, which has increased presence in the PRD, is also planning to set up its China Innovation Center Headquarters in Guangzhou.

 

At the beginning of this year, Zurich Insurance Group obtained the “permit” to set up Guangdong Branch. For this century-old enterprise and a frequenter of Fortune 500 ranking, this is a critical move in the core area of the PRD city agglomeration, following its actions in the city agglomerations of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei and the Yangtze River Delta. “It is the characteristics of opening up and innovation of Guangzhou attracted us,” said Michael Yu, CEO of Zurich Insurance China.

 

As the leader of the PRD National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone “1+1+7”, Guangzhou is eye-catching for the opening up and innovation environment. In the past six years, Guangzhou has ranked the first for five times in Forbes’ rankings of Top 10 “best cities for business on Chinese mainland”. In May this year, the international authoritative science journal Nature said “Guangzhou is transforming from a trade hub to an innovation hot land.”  

 

The PRD with Guangzhou and Shenzhen as leaders is growing into an international scientific and technological innovation hub and leading development of the whole province and the whole country as well. 

 

Guangzhou distributes innovation resources and connects with strong manufacturing and cutting edge technology

 

Six months later after establishing the cooperation ties with Guangzhou, CISCO expanded the cooperation scope to Huizhou in November and was prepare for building Huizhou Tonghu Science City project. “It is expected to build an sample of smart city in Guangzhou and then expand its to the PRD and other cities in South China,” said Owen Chen, chairman and CEO of CISCO Greater China.

 

While settling in Guangzhou, CISCO also brought in 10 strategic partners. These enterprises mainly specialize in the information system integration, smart city, smart healthcare and other fields, which are emerging industries that Guangzhou and the PRD are vigorously introducing. CISCO is enlarging the cooperation partners from Guangzhou to the whole province with Guangzhou as the strategic pivot.

 

Correspondingly, Guangzhou, as the “best brain” of South China, home to 79 universities, 141 R&D institutes, 19 national key laboratories, nearly 1 million college students, is delivering wisdom, technology and information through the extensive transportation network system to the PRD.

 

Huang Yasheng, tenured professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, often visits Guangzhou to seek for production, education and research institutes cooperation opportunities. “It needs cooperation of a strong industrial chain from R&D of innovation technology to production of innovative products. Therefore we turn eyes to the PRD.” Huang believed relying on the strong PRD manufacturing and world leading science and technology concentration, Guangzhou will become an important stage connecting the international advanced technologies and products in the future.

 

“Guangzhou is actually the technological pole of various industrial clusters. A pole has a strong magnetic field and absorption capacity,” said Dr. Peng Jian, head of China-Israel High-tech Cooperation Mechanism of the Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Office of the National Development and Reform Commission. He believed Guangzhou’s innovation hub distribution functions could bring endless talents, information and technology for the industrial clusters in the PRD and make the clusters more competitive.

 

Fact sheet

Guangzhou’s GDP close to Singapore’s

 

In 2015, Guangzhou’s GDP reached RMB1.810041 trillion, or US$278.4 billion, and Singapore’s GDP was US$292.7 billion. Guanzhou’s GDP has been close to Singapore’s level. If Guangzhou and Foshan is a super-city, the two cities’ GDP totaled US$401.5 billion, equaling to that of Thailand.

 

In 2015, Guangzhou’s per capita GDP was equivalent to US$22217.11, and Spain’s US$25832. Guangzhou’s nominal per capita GDP equaled to that of Spain. Although Spain’s seafood paella is different from Guangzhou’s morning tea and Flamengo and Yue opera have their respective charms, these two regions have more common language today.

 

Guangzhou’s nominal GDP aggregate is impressive; if converting to the purchasing power parity (PPP), it will be more striking. In 2014 Guangzhou’s nominal GDP was US$30 billion lower than that of Singapore, but the GDP (PPP) aggregate was US$15 billion higher than Singapore’s. Today Guangzhou can look at Singapore, one of the Four Asian Tigers, horizontally, to which in the past it had to look up.

 

Let’s come to the per capita GDP (PPP), which is the data can best reflect the real living standards of citizens. Shenzhen’s per capita GDP(PPP) in the PRD is the highest, equaling to the level of Seoul, an international capital city. Guangzhou’s data equals to that of Newcastle that is the center of north England, and one of the core cities of the UK. With equaling PPP level with central cities of developed countries, Guangzhou’s “international status” become obvious.

 

Source: Translated from Invest Guangzhou, December 30, 2016