On March 28th, a round table meeting on aviation industry was held as a part of the 2018 Guangzhou Annual Investment Conference, aiming to introduce the Guangzhou Aerotropolis Development District and highlight emerging opportunities for global enterprises and investors.
Organized by Guangzhou Municipal Government and Guangzhou Aerotropolis Development District, the roundtable attracted more than 100 representatives from the government, R&D institutes, and leading enterprises, such as, Boeing, Merck and Israel Aerospace Industries.
Chen Zhiying, Executive Vice Mayor of Guangzhou, said the Guangzhou Aerotropolis Development District’s aviation industry is taking shape, clustering a large amount of headquarters and related enterprises of aircraft maintenance, logistics and aviation finance.
“Baiyun International Airport has handled more than 65 million passengers and 1.7 million tonnes of cargo by the end of 2017,” said Chen Zhiying, “the district will further improve its business environment in terms of government services, market cost and green environment, and introduce world-class aviation enterprises to drive development.”
Earlier in February, Boeing signed a cooperative agreement with China Southern Airlines and Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Co. to jointly launch a series of programs, including the transfer of maintenance technologies and management training. Chen Zhiying said these projects not only boost the aviation industry but highlight the city’s leading aircraft maintenance technologies.
Sun Xiuqing, Chairman of Guangzhou Aerotropolis Development District, added that the district is a national pilot zone to foster airport economy. “Apart from the aviation-related industries, we also aim to cluster IAB and NEM industries in this 120-square-kilometer area (chiefly: IT, AI, bio-tech, new energy and material industries)," he said.
According to the plan, Guangzhou will push forward 80 key projects in the Aerotropolis Development District from 2017 to 2019. These projects involve a wide range of sectors including infrastructure construction, aircraft maintenance and aviation logistics, with a total investment of 314.5 billion yuan.
Alan Gabor, President of Merck China, said although Merck is in the pharmaceutical industry, he sees a new business mode in the Aerotropolis Development District. "We have a large number of clients in Guangzhou. And it will be very convenient to approach both our clients and suppliers worldwide from the district,” he said.
In fact, the Baiyun International Airport has been dedicated to building a more sophisticated global airline network, aiming to connect domestic cities and major cities in Southeast Asia in 4 hours, and major cities worldwide in 12 hours. “Enterprises can save a large amount of time and cost considering logistics only,” said Sun Xiuqing.
Reported by Jasmine Yin
Edited by Wing Zhang
