According to the Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau (Guangzhou Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs), the value of Guangzhou’s tech contract deals amounted to 100 billion RMB in 2019, up from 71.902 billion RMB in 2018, which was in turn double that of 2017.

Guangzhou, the 21st ranked cluster among the top 100 S&T clusters in 2019, moved up 11 places from its 2018 ranking of 32nd, according to the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2019, an innovation ranking benchmark. The GII 2019 also highlighted that China is home to 19 of the top 100 S&T clusters, and was ranked 14th among more than 100 economies worldwide, moving up three spots from 2018. It is also the only middle-income economy in the top 30. The GII report was jointly released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, Cornell University and several other organizations.

[Photo: Xiao Xiong]

To become an innovation tech hub in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Guangzhou has placed particular emphasis on the frontier science fields. In 2019, the city spent 15 billion RMB on building major science and technology infrastructure, such as a deep-sea ecosystem, a dynamic wide-range velocity vehicle test unit, human cell lineage, and an integrated scientific investigation system for extreme marine environments.

Last May, Guangzhou entered into an agreement with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to build the 99 square kilometre Nansha Science City with its core area being the Pearl Science Park. The Science Park will serve as both the city’s science and technology and its high-end service centers when it is completed. The construction of the park officially started last September.

Statistics show that the average annual growth rate in the number of new high-tech enterprises in Guangzhou was 57.39% between 2016 and 2018, ranking first place nationwide. Over those three years, more than 3,000 new high-tech enterprises established themselves in the city. By the end of 2019, however, the total number is expected to exceed 12,000.

In addition, Guangzhou attaches great importance to attracting high-end talent. In 2017, the city unveiled a new set of measures for simplifying the work visa process including optimizing the workflow, simplifying application documents and shortening approval time. In August 2019, the city put forward specific implementation and measures regarding personal income tax deductions for high-demand individuals working in the city within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

[Photo: Zhang Ziwang]

Now there are a huge number of high-end professionals working in the city:

● 3265 high-end foreign professionals with a Category A Work Permit, a 49% year-on-year increase

● 54 individuals from outside the Chinese mainland designated as ‘high-level talent’, accounting for 72% of the province’s total number

● 8 Nobel laureates

● Over 20 foreign academics

● 389 specially-invited experts introduced by the Recruitment Program of Global Experts

Author: Monica Liu

Editor: Simon Haywood