On February 27, the routine news conference of Guangzhou municipal government was held at Guangzhou News Center. Guangzhou Science, Technology and Innovation Commission and the Intellectual Property Office of Guangzhou submitted the “transcript” in 2016 and “shared” the list of assignments in 2017 to present the current situation and prospect of science, technology and innovation of Guangzhou.

 

In 2016, Guangzhou has implemented two “multiplication plans” for the fiscal appropriation for scientific and technological development and the incubators, and insisted on the market orientation and the leading role of enterprises. It has devoted to building the national innovation central city and international scientific and technological innovation hub and ranked the first for several indicators. It ranked No.1 in terms of the patent applications and the growth rate of invention patent applications among the 19 sub-provincial cities. The remarkable transcript shows the innovation strength of Guangzhou again.

 

Remarkable performance on main indicators of scientific and technological innovation, 203 enterprises newly listed on the New Third Board

 

According to the monitoring and evaluation report on completion of “eight main aspects” of various cities of the province in 2016, Guangzhou has ranked the first in the high-tech enterprise fostering, new type research institute construction, incubation system construction, high-level university construction, and innovative talent team construction among nine cities of the Pearl River Delta.

 

Guangzhou has made dramatic achievements in the scientific and technological innovation on the main indicators.

 

The innovation space has been optimized. Guangzhou has strengthened the interaction of the national independent innovation demonstration area and Nansha area of China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone, and developed the scientific and technological innovation corridor. Consequently signs of the regional agglomeration effect of scientific and technological innovation has shown. For example Pazhou Internet Innovation Cluster has introduced 14 portal enterprises such as Tencent and Ali, and ten of them have started construction. The total investment reached more than RMB55 billion. Foxconn 10.5 Generation Display Project has settled in Zengcheng and the first phase input reached RMB61 billion.

 

High-tech enterprises showed explosive growth. In 2016, Guangzhou saw a net increase of 2,820 high-tech enterprises, ranking the second in China, more than 10 times of that in 2015 when the net increase was 263, 252% of the upper limit of the provincial assessment index. The growth rate is the rapidest of all sub-provincial cities in China. Now it has 4,740 high-tech enterprises in total.

 

Innovation enterprises emerged. Guangzhou has ranked among Top 3 of the number of Top 50 innovation enterprises of China for three consecutive years among big cities (8 and 13 enterprises in 2014 and 2015, respectively, ranking the 2^nd in China, and 8 enterprises in 2016, ranking the 3^rd). A batch of innovation-oriented enterprises specializing in mode innovation and business type innovation, including Ehang Inc., Phnix, and Sequoiadb Corporation, have grown rapidly.

 

The innovation platforms have been improved. Guangzhou has taken a lead in formulating the incubator performance assessment indicator system, and ranked among the top in terms of the number of outstanding national technological enterprise incubators for two consecutive years. Guangzhou Development District (GDD) Technological Enterprise Incubator Cluster Innovation Practice has won the special award of the provincial scientific and technological progress award. In 2016, Guangzhou saw 73 newly increased incubators, growing the total number of incubators to 192, and the total incubation area to 8.40 million square meters, and 80 newly increased public makers, making the total number to 115.

 

Distinguished scientific and technological leverage effect. Guangzhou has set up a RMB400 million credit risk compensation pool for small and medium-sized technology enterprises in the first phase, and issued the credit confirmation letters for 418 enterprises and granted loans of RMB4.247 billion, the largest credit scale in China. It has a total of 203 enterprises newly listed at the New Third Board in the year, growing the total number to 347, ranking the first among the provincial capital cities of China in terms of the newly increased listed enterprises and the total number, with the net assets average value of the newly listed enterprises ranking the first among Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

 

High-end innovation element accelerated concentration. The Convention on Exchange of Overseas Talents, China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair, Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation, Canton Tower Science & Technology Conference and other large-scale conventions and events were held one after another, attracting attentions across the world. Moreover, Guangzhou has established 14 national and 23 provincial-level international scientific and technological cooperation bases. Last year, Guangzhou has issued the Talent Green Card to 1200 people, and won high praises on the “citizen treatment” on the household registration and children schooling etc.

 

Reviewing the works in 2016, Zhan Decun, deputy director of Guangzhou Science, Technology and Innovation Commission, said at the fair that Guangzhou’s achievements were closely related to the foundation. For example, the rapid growth of the high-tech enterprises is the sequence of the long-term fostering. The city has given support to a batch of startup enterprises in 2014. With two years of development, a good enterprise base has been established. This year the standards on the high-tech enterprises from the central government feature high operability and enterprises have realized the importance of certification, resulting in the explosive growth.

 

In 2017, Guangzhou will continue the construction of leaders of the national scientific and technological innovation center, accelerate construction of the national independent innovation demonstration area, give priority to the fostering of scientific and technological innovation enterprises, enhance the scientific and technological R&D, vigorously optimize the innovation carriers, deepen integrated development of science and technology and finance, and continuously better the innovation and entrepreneurship environment so as to build Guangzhou into a national innovation central city and international scientific and technological innovation hub.

 

Rapid patent development resulted in Guangzhou’s first ranking in both patent applications and invention patent application growth rate

 

In 2016, the Intellectual Property Office of Guangzhou has comprehensively implemented the intellectual property strategy and made remarkable achievements in the intellectual property creation, application and protection. Last year Guangzhou ranked the first in both the patent applications and invention patent application growth rate among the 19 sub-provincial cities in China, and successfully realized a “good beginning” in the 13^th Five-Year Plan period.

 

Last year Guangzhou saw 99,112 patent applications, up 56.4% year-on-year, including 31,892 invention patent applications, up 58.8% year-on-year. By the end of 2016, the city has 30,305 valid invention patents, 22.4 invention patents per 10,000 people, higher than the country’s average (8 patents) and Guangdong Province’s (16.5 patents), overfulfilling the objective specified in the Outline of Plan of the Pearl River Delta. The Intellectual Property Office of Guangzhou has also tapped the leading role of polices and funds to facilitate the effective application of patented technology and supported industrialization of 100 patented technologies of 96 enterprises.

 

What is worth mentioning is that the private enterprises have developed rapidly in invention and creation. Last year, seven of the Top 10 enterprises of the invention patent applications are private enterprises. The annual patent applications of Guangzhou Shiyuan Electronic Co., Ltd. (CVTE) reached 1,149, making the enterprise Guangzhou’s first with annual applications exceeding 1000.

 

Ding Li, deputy director of the Intellectual Property Office of Guangzhou, said at the fair that new breakthroughs have been made in the e-commerce intellectual property protection. The city has implemented the special actions such as “May Lightning” and “Internet Improvement Action”, and dealt with 632 fake patent cases on Internet platforms. In 2017, the Intellectual Property Office will accelerate construction of the national scientific and technological innovation hub and intellectual property power city and improve support from intellectual property to innovation-driven development.

 

Source: Translated from Invest Guangzhou, February 28, 2017