Guangdong has successfully hosted ten sessions of the International Consultative Conference on the Future Economic Development (ICCFED) since 1999.

Advisers from Global 500 Companies, industry-leading firms, professional associates and universities have submitted hundreds of forward-looking and position-relevant proposals, some of which have been proved to be effective to boost Guangdong’s development.

According to Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the following are 10 affective proposals during the past 10 sessions of ICCFEDs.

Guangzhou International Light Festival[PhotoSouthcn.com]

1.Guangdong Optical Valley

In the first plenary in 1999, Mr. Richard McGinn, president and CEO of Lucent Technologies, suggested that Guangdong should establish an optical valley.

Later, after study the provincial government decided to launch the “Guangdong Optical Valley” in Guangzhou Science City in Luogang District. It has attracted Lite-On, Soutec Lighting Co.,LTD, LG and other leading companies, making it a cluster for optical industry in Guangdong.

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Guangdong Science Center[File photo ewsgd.com]

2.Guangdong Modernization Plan 2010

Also in the first plenary in 1999, Mr. Sune Karlsson, Executive Vice President of ABB, submitted a proposal of Guangdong Modernization Plan, 2010, including the construction of a theme park to showcase Guangdong’s modernization.

The provincial government later took his advice and started to construct Guangdong Science Center. The construction finished in 2007, and next year the center was open to the public. Now it has become a key platform to popularize knowledge of science and technology.

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[File photoSouthcn.com]

3.Accelerate Guangdong’s logistics industry

Mr. John B. Menzer from Walmart made a suggestion that Guangdong should develop its modern system of logistics and establish some large companies in 2000 ICCFED.

This helped Guangdong to put more emphasis on modern logistics industry. In the following few years some policies to accelerate Guangdong’s logistics industry have been made and put into effect, making logistics a key sector in Guangdong’s service industry.

At present, Guangdong is writing a draft about the development planning of the province’s logistic industry in the next five years, aiming to level up its logistics continuously.

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4.Establish R & D center for 3G platform

In the session of 2003 ICCFED, Mr. Carl-Henric Svanberg, the president and CEO of Ericsson, put forward that Guangdong should establish a R&D center for 3G platform.

Based on that, Guangdong supported Ericsson to set up an R & D center for software environment and 3G data service testing in Guangzhou.

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Shenzhen' Qianhai FTZ where a large number of HK financial institutes locate [file photo] 

5.Bring in HK financial service enterprises

During the participation of ICCFED 2009, Mr. Sergio Balbinot, the CEO of Assicurazioni Generali and Generali Group, suggested Guangdong to attract Hong Kong financial service enterprises to establish bank’s call-center and database at Guangdong High-Tech Service Zone for Financial Institutions.

In recent years, Guangdong has attracted a lot of financial projects from HK, including the Asia-Pacific Back-up Center of American International Assurance Co., Ltd., the International Financial Centre (IFC), the HSBC Group Service Centre and so on.

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Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen[file photo]

6.Accelerate the internationalization of education

On ICCFED 2011, Prof. Jared L. Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon University pointed out that Guangdong should speed up the internationalization of education.

It is necessary for the province to take advantage of top international educational resources and get more advanced ideas from developed countries.

Hence, Guangdong makes effort to establish international platforms for higher education by launching a series of joint-university programs such as the Joint Institute of Engineering of SYSU-CMU and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.

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Nansha port[file photo by southcn.com]

7.Deepen the reform of customs clearance mode

Guangdong should deepen the reform of the customs clearance mode in ports to raise efficiency, said Jim Barber, the International President of UPS on ICCFED 2013.

To facilitate the foreign trade and investment, Guangdong pilots the “single window” system in Guangzhou and Shenzhen to achieve a seamless data exchange for the inspection, releasing, verification of goods and applications from enterprises.

This innovative method helps to save costs and time for enterprises and increase the efficiency of customs clearance.

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[Photo by Southcn.com]

8.Establish robotics application center

On ICCFED 2013, Dr. Brice Koch, Executive Vice President of ABB group, proposed to establish a robotics application center in Guangdong. That advice means a lot for the province’s industrial upgrading.

In recent years, Dongguan and Foshan have established Guangdong Intelligent Robotics Institute and South China Robotics Innovation Research Institute respectively.

Partnering with the research institute of Midea and its cooperation with Yaskawa Electric Corporation, South China Robotics Innovation Research Institute becomes a platform to link robotics enterprises with research institute. And Guangdong Intelligent Robotics Institute has been approved as a pilot for intelligent manufacturing in China.

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[Photo by Nanfangdaily]

9.Strengthen cooperation in smart transportation

On the ICCFED 2015, Dr. Roland Busch, Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG, proposed to cooperate with Guangdong in the field of smart transportation, and to push forward related pilot projects.

Since the suggestion was raised, Siemens joined hands with Zhuhai city to build a traffic information service platform. The first phase of the project has been completed in the same year in 2015, and became the first platform which combines green traffic ideas and traffic management in China.

The two parties will further construction of the platform, and develop Zhuhai as a new model of smart traffic management in the future.

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[File photoSouthcn.com]

10.Facilitate development of new energy auto industry

During the ICCFED 2015, Jochem Heizmann, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, suggested that Guangdong could optimize its policies and facilitate the development of new energy auto industry.

In recent years, Guangdong has paid strong efforts in developing the industry. The provincial government released a related method in 2016 which plans to boost the sales of new energy cars to 250,000 units in Guangdong by 2020.

According to the plan, it will also replace buses with the electric models and build up a convenient service system for battery charging and changing.

With these efforts, the new energy auto industry sees rapid progress in Guangdong. The cumulative production grew 275% to 70,839 units in 2016, which took up 13.7% of the national total output. The province also boosted the sales to 49,854, accounting for nearly 10% of the national sales.

Besides, a large number of new energy auto and parts enterprises, such as, BYD and Zhuhai’s Yinlong, are booming in Guangdong.