This February, the State Council approved the master urban planning of Guangzhou, marking a new start in the development history of Guangzhou. The approval said that, Guangzhou, which is the provincial capital of Guangdong, is a famous historic and cultural city, an important central city of China, an international business center and comprehensive transportation hub. The state government has been improving the positioning of the city. Seizing the opportunity, Guangzhou is increasingly highlighting its role as a central city.

 

What should an “important national central city” look like? Simply, it should be a hub city featuring concentration of high-end elements, including human resources, logistics and capital and information flows, as well as strong radiation and leading functions. Domestically, it should be a pivot for economic activities and resource allocation, a hub of transportation and information networks, and a city concentrated with resources for science development, education, cultural development and health care; internationally, it should have strong influence and competitiveness so that it can be a representative participating in international competition, communication and cooperation. Based on these criteria, so far, Guangzhou has made a great progress and remarkable achievements in the construction of important national central city.

 

The urban layout of Guangzhou has been optimized, and the city now has a traffic network extending in all directions. The leading ability of the city as a hub and the network connectivity directly decide the influence and competitiveness of the city. In recent years, Guangzhou has been making great efforts to build a hub-type network city by optimizing the urban structure, highlighting the city’s characteristics, enhancing its functions and promoting free flow of various elements and optimization of resources, aiming to provide great support for the consolidation and improvement of its status as an important national central city. As a “center”, the city must have strong traffic radiation capacity. Guangzhou is focusing on building three strategic hubs for international shipping, air transport and science and technology innovation to form up new driving forces and growth poles for further development. Currently, Guangzhou has 168 container liner routes, which connect with more than 400 ports of China and more than 100 other countries. Baiyun International Airport has 136 international and regional air lines in operation, connecting with five continents in the world. In addition, Guangzhou is being highly motivated to participate in international communication and cooperation. A number of high-grade international conventions have been or will be held in Guangzhou. Meanwhile, Guangzhou is active in participating Davos forum and Boao Forum for Asia. In 2017, the Fortune Global Forum will be held in Guangzhou, allowing Guangzhou to attract the world attention again.

 

Guangzhou has shown strong economic strength and concentrated high-end elements. To build an important national central city, economic strength is a hard-and-fast indicator. The economic development, prosperous business and trade and active investment and business launch activities provide a fundamental guarantee for a central city to consolidate and improve its status. For many years, Guangzhou has been ranking third among the cities in the Chinese mainland in terms of economic aggregate and playing a leading and driving role in South China and even the whole country. The latest statistics showed that, in the first three quarters of this year, the local GDP of Guangzhou reached RMB1403.778 billion, up 8.1% year-on-year, respectively 1.4 and 0.8 percentage points higher than the national GDP growth (6.7%) and Guangdong’s provincial GDP growth (7.3%). For a megacity, it is really rare and commendable to realize such a growth on a high base. In the first half of this year, 16 projects of Fortune 500 enterprises were launched in Guangzhou, with total investment of RMB27.2 billion. A great number of domestic and international giant companies, including Cisco, GE and China Railway Construction Corporation, have been attracted here, manifesting the status and role of Guangzhou as an “important national central city”.

 

Guangzhou also boasts strong cultural radiation capacity and rich urban resources. Whenever Guangzhou is mentioned, the splendid Lingnan culture must be a topic that people take delight in talking about. The Canton food attracts foodies from all over the world to Guangzhou; the flowers deeply impress on so many people coming to enjoy the beautiful sceneries at the same time of experiencing the unique Cantonese custom…… The distinctive culture makes Guangzhou a famous historic and cultural city with absolute cultural attraction. In addition, Guangzhou has rich resources for science development, education, cultural development and health care, which make the city more attractive. Guangzhou is a medical center of South China, with concentrated best medical resources in the Pearl River Delta. It has more than 30 Grade 3 and first-class hospitals. The 2016 Report on Competitiveness of Chinese Hospitals indicated that, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai ranked top three in terms of number of nominated Top-Class Chinese Hospitals in 2015. In the aspects of science development and education, 97% national key disciplines, 80% of universities and colleges, more than 70% of scientific and technical personnel and 95% of doctors of Guangdong province are in Guangzhou. That’s why Guangzhou is known as a place for concentration of high-level talents and information.

 

Guangzhou is a famous cultural city with a history as a city of more than 2,200 years and is honored “a centuries-old business city”. The political, economic and cultural strengths of Guangzhou have been continuously strengthened, while the driving and radiation abilities and the influence of the city have been improved to reach a new level. With further consolidation of the status as an important national central city, Guangzhou must be able to have broad prospects and make more significant achievements.

 

Source: Translated from Invest Guangzhou, November 7, 2016