The 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting will be held in Shenzhen from November 18 to 19, 2026. This year marks the APEC "China Year," with China focusing on three priorities: openness, innovation and cooperation. As a series of APEC-related meetings and events take place in Guangdong, China's largest provincial economy, the province is emerging as an important window for expanded cooperation between China and other Asia-Pacific economies.
As a frontier of China's reform and opening-up, Guangdong's own development has also been closely tied to openness, innovation and cooperation.
Openness, innovation and cooperation drive growth
Guangdong's GDP reached 14.58 trillion yuan in 2025, placing the province first nationwide for the 37th consecutive year. The province is also home to 10 industrial clusters, each valued at more than 1 trillion yuan. In the first half of 2026, Guangdong's trade with other APEC economies totaled 3.59 trillion yuan, up 21.4 percent year on year.
Innovation is also reshaping how Guangdong competes globally. In the Global Innovation Index 2025 released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou innovation cluster ranked first globally for the first time. Guangdong has also built strong advantages in advanced manufacturing sectors such as drones, industrial robots and new energy vehicles, with around 70 percent of the world's consumer drones manufactured in the province.
Meanwhile, major cooperation platforms including Hengqin, Qianhai, Nansha and Hetao continue to advance institutional innovation and cross-border cooperation, further strengthening economic and technological links within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Wu Hao, chairman of the Overseas Chinese Youth Federation in Russia and publisher of the Russian‑language edition of China Newsweek, said China's return as APEC host after 12 years, with Shenzhen set to host the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, sends a positive signal of the country's determination to further open up and deepen Asia-Pacific cooperation.
Industrial upgrading creates new growth drivers
Changes in Guangdong's export structure offer a snapshot of its industrial upgrading. The "new trio" major sectors (new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products) have expanded rapidly in global markets in recent years. Now, the "next new trio" sectors (artificial intelligence, robotics and innovative pharmaceuticals) are also emerging as a new growth driver.
The shift is also visible in consumer electronics. Smart imaging products from Guangdong‑based companies such as DJI and Insta360 are attracting growing attention in overseas markets, including Japan. Meng Linghua, editor-in-chief of the West Japan Chinese Community Network, said changes in China's export structure reflect continuous technological advances and industrial upgrading driven by market competition.
Sun Jifei, deputy editor-in-chief of Shangbao Indonesia and founding president of the Guangdong Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia, said Guangdong's "new trio" major sectors (new energy vehicles, lithium‑ion batteries and photovoltaic products) and the "next new trio" sectors (artificial intelligence, robotics and innovative pharmaceuticals) align closely with the needs of Southeast Asian countries for industrial upgrading and energy transition. In his view, Guangdong's complete industrial chains and its ability to rapidly refine and upgrade technologies and services give the province an important competitive edge.
Guangdong has held the Provincial High-Quality Development Conference for four consecutive years starting in 2023. The 2023 conference called for efforts to build a new Guangdong, and the 2026 edition has placed greater emphasis on the coordinated development of the manufacturing and service industries. Wu Hao said Guangdong's continued efforts to build a modern industrial system have made it increasingly clear that the vision of building a new Guangdong is gradually becoming a reality.
Guangdong connects the Asia-Pacific and the world
In March, BASF's Verbund Site in Zhanjiang became fully operational. Built and operated entirely by BASF, the site is one of the company's largest investments worldwide. From the signing of the first memorandum of understanding in July 2018 to full operation in March 2026, the project took about seven years and eight months.
Continued investment by international companies also reflects Guangdong's appeal to foreign investors. In the first half of 2026, 16,000 new foreign-invested enterprises were established in the province, up 8.4 percent year on year, while actual utilization of foreign direct investment (FDI) reached 62.55 billion yuan, up 6.8 percent. Guangdong has also introduced new plans this year to build a business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and internationalized, with facilitation measures in areas including cross-border trade, foreign-related legal services and services for international talent.
Guangdong also has deep people-to-people ties with the Asia-Pacific and the wider world. As one of China's major ancestral homes for overseas Chinese, Guangdong has ties to more than 30 million overseas Chinese living in over 160 countries and regions. These long-standing connections also lay a strong social foundation for economic and trade cooperation between Guangdong and overseas markets.
Online content creator Chen Yingling said, "Economic and trade cooperation determines whether two places can grow together, while people-to-people exchanges determine whether that relationship can endure. Ultimately, relations between countries come down to relations between people."
As the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting draws closer, Guangdong will attract increasing attention from economies across the Asia-Pacific. From industrial upgrading and opening-up to regional cooperation, the province is demonstrating a Guangdong approach that broadens the scope of cooperation through openness, drives growth through innovation and strengthens long-term ties through people-to-people exchanges.
Text | Zhang Xuanzhen (intern), Deng Li (intern), Huang Xinyi
Photos | Nanfang Plus, Xinhua News
