On the afternoon of September 21, a roadshow for the 2017 Fortune Global Forum took place in Silicon Valley in the USA. This is the fourth roadshow Guangzhou holds in the USA, after New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago, and the 13th around the world.
A full-page feature containing two articles of Guangzhou was published on USA Today on September 21, local time. One is titled ‘Guangzhou, the Emerging Innovation and Startup Hub Attracting Global Interest’, and the other ‘Guangzhou's Tianhe District Embracing Global Entrepreneurship’.
The full-page feature containing two articles of Guangzhou is published on USA Today on September 21, 2017 local time. [Photo provided to Newsgd.com]
The two articles are as follow:
Guangzhou, the Emerging Innovation and Startup Hub Attracting Global Interest
An innovation revolution, bold enough to make a great difference to the global economic landscape has been gaining momentum in China amid globalization as the progress of renewed technology and industry is being accelerated.
Renowned for the Canton Fair - the “barometer” of China's economy -Guangzhou has been Southern China’s most proactive player in trade and the most dynamic city to adopt China’s innovation-driven development strategy. Throughout the 2,000 year history of the maritime Silk Road, Guangzhou has ever been China’s window and hub to the outside world.
To facilitate a global innovation revolution, the city has become a paradise of opportunities and the most promising region in China for attracting entrepreneurs from around the world thanks to its current innovation efforts in such emerging industries as the new generation of information technology, artificial intelligence and bio-medicine, or IAB, as well as new energy and materials (NEM).
To Build Innovation Platforms
Similar to San Francisco’s world famous high-tech center Silicon Valley, Guangzhou also boasts a welcoming environment, inclusive culture and transport services including world-class ports and a favorable key position as a part of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. “Guangzhou is the best practice of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” said Professor Klaus Schwab, the Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.
According to the city government, a number of industry clusters with some RMB 100 billion value will come into being through the building of innovation and startup platforms including Cisco's Smart City in Panyu, Pazhou Internet Innovation Cluster Area, Tianhe Intelligence Business District (IBD) and Guangzhou Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone, to name a few. It is expected to boost the city's GDP from RMB 1.96 trillion in 2016 to RMB 2.8 trillion in 2020.
In one of the subsidiary sci-tech parks of the Guangzhou High-tech Industrial Development Zone, a research team led by Zhou Chenghu, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and principal scientist of Guangzhou Institute of Geography, demonstrated the Geographic Spatiotemporal Big Data Cloud Platform. “The Cloud Platform, whose aim is to realize accuracy within one square meter, would offer information on Guangdong’s resources and social economy across the board. Such industries as UAV Plus environmental protection, public security and space planning have now seen wider application and commercialization as the intelligent geographic space technology develops,” noted Dr. Zhou Xia, from Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangdong Academy of Sciences.
This is only a microcosm of Guangzhou's many innovative incubator platforms. The “Internet Plus Town”, based on the new generation of information technology, provides a strong impetus to Guangzhou’s replacement of old growth drivers with new ones where supply-side structural reform is the main focus.
Data shows that, by the end of 2016, Guangzhou has a total of 192 technology business incubators, of which 21 are state level ones. Evaluations of national science and technology enterprise incubators in 2015 graded 5 businesses at A-level, ranking Guangzhou third just behind Shanghai (8) and Beijing (6).
To Play a Leading Role
In China’s blueprint for promoting innovation, the Pearl River Delta (PRD) is positioned as the innovation hub for technology industry. Guangzhou is situated at the heart of the PRD in Chinese mainland, an area with a wide range of industrial layout that is the leading manufacturing base for China. Manufacturers in Guangzhou and the PRD have voiced the urgency of transformation and upgrading, tapping into a vast market for local intelligence equipment suppliers.
According to 2016 data, Guangzhou’s robot production ranked second in China, and the scale of intelligent equipment and robotics industry reached nearly RMB 50 billion. A municipal government director stated that Guangzhou would step up its efforts in building a leading demonstration city for the national “Made in China 2025” strategy, becoming an innovation base for high-end equipment manufacturing and a model area integrating intelligent manufacturing and service. By 2020, the added value in the advanced manufacturing sector in Guangzhou will account for more than 70% of that in manufacturing enterprises above the designated size.
Scientific, educational and human resource abundance places Guangzhou in the most favorable position to play a leading role in innovation. Most scientific research institutes in Guangdong Province are located in Guangzhou, including 83 colleges and universities, 44 provincial research & development institutes and 19 state key laboratories. According to Annual Report on Innovation City Development of Guangzhou (2017), since the beginning of 2016, the city government has issued policies including Opinions on Speeding up Pooling Industry Leaders and Talent's Green Card Scheme in order to make it easier for overseas talents to live in Guangzhou, providing services for leaving or entering the country, residence, purchases of houses and cars as well as education of their children. These services are offered in support of teams and talented individuals in innovation ventures, and top-tier and much-needed talents in the industry. In 2017, the city’s financial investment in scientific and technological innovation will exceed RMB 10.8 billion. By introducing multiple policies which bring in both intelligence and capital, Guangzhou is becoming a place where international innovative talents gather and meet.
To Create Development Opportunities
This March, the Chinese Cities of Opportunity 2017 study report, jointly launched by PwC China and the China Development Research Foundation (CDRF), labeled Guangzhou as the top “Opportunity City” for the second year running.
Guangzhou is working to build a world information hub to improve connectivity with the rest of the world, with the help of its key strategic tools: international shipping services, airlines and science and technology innovation. While it is heading for critical phase in recent years, it is expected to improve the global distribution and flow of people, logistics, capital and information, showcasing its ability to attract and affect high-end resources, thusly creating tremendous investment opportunities.
In the meantime, the growth of Guangzhou’s exhibition economy has shown the potential and roles of the PRD and China in the global economic recovery. In addition to the Fortune Global Forum, the municipal government also stated Guangzhou had won the bid for hosting the 24th World Route Development Forum 2018, the 31st World Ports Conference 2019, and the 13th Metropolis World Congress 2020. With international high-level conferences pouring in, Guangzhou is becoming an important international exchange center.
The 2017 Fortune Global Forum will take place in Guangzhou from December 6 to 8 with the theme of "Openness & Innovation: Shaping the Global Economy." This major event will bring together leaders and famous figures from Fortune Global 500 companies, multinational corporations, society and government. It will no doubt be a significant opportunity for Guangzhou, which is committed to cultivating international development strategies. “Through the Fortune Global Forum, which is ‘the clearest and most direct window to the global economy’, we can see that Guangzhou is ‘building itself as an important international exchange center’ and that China is ‘leading a new phase of globalization’”, said Alan Murray, President of Fortune Magazine and Chief Content Officer of Time Inc.
Guangzhou's Tianhe District Embracing Global Entrepreneurship
As the administrative district topping Guangzhou’s economy for a decade on end, Tianhe, situated along the new urban central axis, covers 137 square kilometers and accommodates 1.54 million residents. In 2016, its GDP hit RMB 380.1 billion (about USD 58.1 billion). The internationally market-oriented business environment with an emphasis on law, coupled with livable allure, makes it a favorite destination for attracting investment at home and abroad.
“Turning into an economic hub in which headquarters and finance companies cluster, Tianhe also strives to play the largest role in shaping Guangzhou as a center of international scientific innovation,” said a leader governing Tianhe. Known as the “green heart of the city”, Tianhe District is making headquarters economy and innovation its two powerful economic engines.
Booming Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Through the annual THero International Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competition since 2015, Tianhe has established an ecosystem which enables innovation and entrepreneurship by combining competitions, talents, policy initiatives, funds and services. For the last two years, the event had gathered over 2800 projects and teams from China. In 2017, the event set up nine overseas divisions in the US’s Silicon Valley, Israel’s Tel Aviv, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macao and Taiwan regions in a bid to pull in more global resources for scientific innovation.
International networking events of innovation and entrepreneurship held by Tianhe, such as Guangzhou International Innovation Festival and Guangzhou International Entrepreneurs Festival have seen innovativeness taking root, and mass entrepreneurship and innovation thriving. All these efforts have pressed the city ahead towards a globally-connected hub for entrepreneurial opportunities.
The innovative boom has bred a batch of technological brands that are enjoying world-wide fame, such as NetEase, WeChat, UC, KuGou, PCI and NINED. In the last three years, 12 companies in Tianhe made their way into the list of top 50 most innovative Chinese companies selected by US’s Fast Company. Six others were included in top 100 China internet companies in 2016, the most in Guangdong Province.
The momentum for innovation and entrepreneurship is largely attributed to the government’s solid initiative to bring in investment, brains and technologies. For 2017, Tianhe is said to renew its commitment to industrial financing and scientific innovation, annually increasing investments by around RMB two billion (about USD 305.41million) in innovation and entrepreneurship for the future, while sectors like IAB (Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Bio-pharmaceutical), creative industries and financial services will be the major focus. Recruitment programs of high-caliber talents are also being launched, posing a grant of up to RMB 7.5 million (about USD 1.15 million) to each leading personnel. As of now, Tianhe has drawn 20 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, 18 experts from the Thousand Talents Plan, and 23 leading talents from Guangdong’s scientific community. In 2016, Tianhe’s patent ownership per 10,000 people reached 57, eight times the national average. Its number of employees in internet-related industries was only second to Beijing’s Zhongguancun Science Park.
Powerful Financial Services
Finance is the blood that runs through innovation and entrepreneurship. To produce “blood” for its 100-odd headquarters and some 50 thousand technology companies, Tianhe has forged three major service systems for scientific finance based on venture capital, scientific and technological credit and multi-level capital market, indicating finance has become Tianhe’s leading industry.
Since their registration in June, 2017, Tianhe No.1 and No.2 Funds, also known as Venture Capital (VC) Guidance Funds of Emerging Strategic Industries, have channeled an investment of nearly RMB 50 million (USD 7.6 million) into four innovation or start-up projects.
Tianhe Venture Capital Building, the first building dedicated to VC in China, started operation this June. It will be home to a venture capital public service platform, and a beacon of VC investment. By 2020, the building is expected to have gathered no less than 100 globally well-known VC firms, and managed VC worth RMB 200 billion (USD 30 billion).
“Tianhe also plans to issue related policy initiatives to target the VC firms that excel in global or domestic corporate league tables in a bid to invite more high-quality settlers, and to create an industrial agglomeration effect by integrating the upstream and downstream industry chain”, said a leader of Tianhe.
Thanks to the growing headquarters, financial and technological capabilities, by the end of this June, Tianhe had owned 215 licensed financial institutions, bearing 70 percent of all in Guangzhou, including 24 corporate ones, representing 46% of the whole city. For now, Tianhe is home to 33 listed companies, 114 listed ones on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations, and 1363 listed on Guangzhou Equity Trading Center, taking up 26.2%, 27.8% and 35.3% of all in Guangzhou respectively.
“Super Incubator” Accelerating Forward
As Fortune 500 projects and many headquarters settle in, high-end elements are flowing into Tianhe from all over the world. For now, Tianhe has witnessed 221 projects invested by 160 Fortune 500 companies, 55.6 percent of all in Guangzhou. Fueled by the “Golden Triangle Area” composed of Guangzhou Tianhe Central Business District (Tianhe CBD), Guangzhou International Financial City and Pazhou Internet Innovation Agglomeration Area, Tianhe is achieving its goal of building a role model that successfully mixes headquarters, finance and scientific innovation.
As the only member of World Business District Alliance in Southern China, Tianhe CBD gathered the Big Four accounting firms, Five global major real estate companies, 90 percent of Guangzhou’s financial institutes and an influx of service-oriented firms in human resource and outsourcing, creating an output value of RMB 270 billion (USD 40.45 billion) in 2016, ranking first in China and nearly RMB 100 billion (USD 14.98 billion) above the runner-up—Beijing CBD, thusly being awarded as “China's Most Dynamic CBD” and the “Demonstration Base for the Liberalization and Upgrading of Trade in Service in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao”. Tianhe IBD, which has convened over 2000 technology companies, is the most agglomerated software park in Southern China. Going ahead, Guangzhou International Financial City, while focusing on consumer and technology finance, will accommodate headquarters of innovative financial and technology companies. Planned in line with international standards, Guangdan-Olympic Innovation and Creativity Gathering Area is to be refitted as a national scientific garden and be shaped as a trend-setter in innovation and creativity across China by housing a large number of technological innovation headquarters.
Driven by headquarters’ economy and scientific and technical innovation, Tianhe is emerging as a super incubator despite land scarcity. With innovative entrepreneurial ideas and services, in July, Tianhe took the lead in transforming run-down parks and factories as well as village collective properties, which are either inefficient or lying idle. The move comes as the district’s planners have expected to create additional 2.5 million square meters for maker space in villages. The coming innovative platform, in turn, will provide more options for startups.
“Guangzhou is the comprehensive transport hub of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, making Tianhe the core of the hub. Influentially speaking, Tianhe as one of the most important economies in the Bay Area will bring its advantages into full play,” said Zeng Li, Director of Jones Lang LaSalle, Fortune 500 Company and world’s top five real estate consultancy.
