Yesterday on March 28th, the Management Committee of Nansha Free Trade Zone (FTZ) held an AI themed sub-forum at the 2018 Guangzhou Annual Investment Conference, aiming to highlight the district’s opportunities and achievements in building itself as an AI industrial cluster.
The sub-forum was overwhelmingly crowded as it attracted a large number of representatives from world’s leading enterprises, such as, Huawei, iFlytek and Pony.ai, and overseas attendants from foreign consulates in Guangzhou and foreign chambers of commerce.
Cai Chaolin, standing member of the CPC Guangzhou Committee and Party Chief of Nansha district, gives a speech during Nansha’s sub-forum. [Photo provided to Newsgd.com]
Cai Chaolin, standing member of the CPC Guangzhou Committee and Party Chief of Nansha district, introduced that Nansha is a promising place for development as it’s located at the center of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area which is the most dynamic economy around the world.
“Being a FTZ and a state-level new area, Nansha is supported by a wide range of profitable policies in China,” said Cai Chaolin, “in the future, we will devote to Guangzhou as well as Guangdong’s economic restructuring, scientific innovation, reform and openness and better governance.”
Zeng Jinze, Executive Chief of Nansha, added the district started building an AI industrial cluster in 2017, and by far has gained profound achievement. “We have established four high-end R&D platforms and attracted 32 AI enterprises. World’s top AI scientists including Yang Zhiyuan, Yao Qizhi, Zhou Xi and Wei Si have also joined our development,” he said.
Nansha’s AI forum attracts a large number of overseas attendants. [Photo provided to Newsgd.com]
Meanwhile, KOLs in the AI industry gave insights into how they are operating businesses in Nansha. Wu Junhua from iFlytek, a leading language input software provider, said the company launched an AI institute in Nansha earlier this year, which would not only bring in its top technologies but a large amount of related talents.
“Our chief scientist, Wei Si, is the dean of our AI institute. He will cooperate with local universities and help foster talents for the industry,” said Wu Junhua, “we also utilize the strength of the Greater Bay Area and hire outstanding candidates from Hong Kong and Macao. We just finished the first round of recruitment in Hong Kong this mouth.”
Hu Wen, COO of Pony.ai, a world’s leading self-driving car company, said the company has settled in Nansha for only 5 months but it has already completed a large amount of trial rides. “Next we will cooperate with Nansha government and develop an autonomous ride-sharing fleet to serve the public in Mingzhu Bay Area. This plan could be realized in 2 to 3 years,” said Hu Wen.
When asked about the most impressive thing in Nansha, Hu Wen said he was amazed by the efficiency of its business registration process. “It took us less than one month from negotiation to receiving our business license here,” he said.
A signing ceremony is held during Nansha’s sub-forum. [Photo provided to Newsgd.com]
During the forum, a batch of cooperative agreements was signed between Nansha and industrial giants including China Resources Group and China Railway Transportation Logistics. These agreements cover a wide range of areas, such as Headquarter economy, logistics and innovation with a total investment of over 30 billion yuan.
In addition, Nansha also signed a number of MoUs with overseas enterprises, such as, Ernst & Young, KPMG Advisory and CNBC, aiming to better the district’s business environment and further promote the district on the global stage.
Reported by Jasmine Yin
Edited by Wing Zhang
