Improving Guangzhou’s driving force, influence and coverage

 

The rotating “earth” and flashing light spots show mass information: 357 million in China, 1.57 million in Southeast Asia, 1.01 million in North America, 250,000 in Europe.... WeChat has 559 million users across the world. Dozens of senior executives of foreign media and foreign consuls in Guangzhou at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Media Dialogue on Connectivity were amazed by WeChat while inquiring “all R&D of WeChat were implemented here?” when they were visiting a creativity industrial park which was renovated from a discarded textile factory.

 

Guangzhou Pazhou Internet Innovation Cluster

 

As the headquarters of WeChat, more and more investors and entrepreneurs have gotten used to comparing WeChat to Guangzhou: this city is like a super easygoing “application”. The questionnaire made by American Chamber of Commerce in South China this year to 246 enterprises shows that nearly 60% of the respondents were willing to settle their Southeast China headquarters in Guangzhou, an increase of 4 percentage points compared with that in 2014.

 

The goods news on the investment attraction have also proved the popularity of Guangzhou: On April 21, the 1^st anniversary of the establishment of China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone, more than 10 projects were officially signed, including “the Belt and Road” cooperation projects between Nansha New Area and Xixian New Area, China Communications Construction Company International Industrial Investment Platform, and Nansha Cross-border Financial Innovation Service Base. Locating the south headquarters base with annually RMB100 billion businesses in Nansha New Area is based on its advantages of “going global”, said a director of China Railway Construction Corporation Limited. On the same day, Guangdong Airport Authority and UBM signed a cooperation agreement, officially confirming that World Route 2018 will be held in Guangzhou. The World Route is crowned as the “Olympic Games” of the civil aviation circle of the world. Holding this event can not only drive the local economic development, but also significantly increase the number of international routes of the host. On April 22, Cisco Systems, a Fortune 500 corporation, officially settled its China innovation center headquarters in Guangzhou International Innovation City. China’s first smart city with the smart manufacturing cloud as its core and annual output value RMB100 billion is established.

 

“The 13^th Five-Year Plan period will be the golden time, window phase and time of opportunities for Guangzhou to move toward high-end sustainable development. We will put emphasis on construction of the international shipping hub, international aviation hub and international scientific and technological innovation hub, and focus on building a clean, neat and orderly urban environment, market-oriented, law-based internationalized business agreeable environment, a clean and sound political eco-environment, and a high-end high-quality modern industrial system and high-level export-oriented new economic system and improve Guangzhou’s driving force, influence and coverage,” said a major leader of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee.

 

Centering on the defined goals, Guangzhou is moving forward steadily.

 

Source: Translated from Invest Guangzhou, June 12, 2016