Intelligent Guangzhou North, a new powerhouse for the future of the Greater Bay Area

　　On April 18th, Huadu District parallel sub-venue of the 9th Guangzhou Annual Investment Conference and Forbes China Venture Capital Forum was held with the theme of "Northern Growth Pole of Intelligent Manufacturing for A New Future". At the event policies and measures for high-quality development of Huadu air cargo industry were announced, and contracts were signed with leading enterprises for a number of projects in new energy, airport related industry and headquarters, and intelligent manufacturing. Heavyweight experts in new energy, and representatives of airport industry flagship enterprises and green new energy enterprises gathered together to share and exchange ideas about the new trends in relation to Huadu's plan for "intelligent manufacturing" and how to develop industries in the Greater Bay Area.

　　Empowerment of intelligence

　　Create "one city, five parks and one base"

　　Vigorously support the development of sunrise industries

　　As home to the only large-scale air and rail dual hub in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the first stop for people visiting Guangzhou from around the world, Huadu is a veritable "window to the world" and the "hub living room" that is nearest to the world. What is more, the vision of "high-level planning and construction of the northern growth pole of Guangzhou to build a comprehensive gateway and a new powerhouse for high-quality development in northern Guangzhou" in Guangzhou’s 2049 development strategy plan has comprehensively enhanced the strategic position of Huadu in the city's development landscape. Bearing in mind the development positioning of "international comprehensive transportation hub, pivotal economic new highland, new platform of international opening in the Greater Bay Area, and world-class aviation metropolis", and following the three-step strategy of "building a strong transportation hub - expanding as an economic hub - creating an open highland", Huadu is increasing factor density, upgrading industrial levels, deepening the opening up, and fully stimulating the role of international aviation hub as a driving force to creating a great growth platform in the north of Guangzhou.

　　As part of the effort to deeply implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the important spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s instructions on carbon dioxide peaking and carbon neutrality, and to follow the instructions of the provincial party committee and the provincial government to "build on the base of manufacturing" and "cultivate and develop new energy storage as a strategic and pillar industry", Huadu District relies on the unique dual hub advantages, unwaveringly sticks to the foundation of real economy development, actively searches and seizes new opportunities for high-quality development, firmly adheres to the goal of building a "Intelligent Manufacturing-supported District", accelerates the formation of the new pattern of industrial development featuring “One District, One City, One Port And One Bay", and endeavors to build a future-oriented and echeloned system of large-scale "Hundred, Ten and One" industrial chains, that is, one 250 billion-level industrial chain group (intelligent and connected vehicles and new energy vehicles), two 100 billion-level ones (electronic information, new type of display, and airport high-tech), two 10 billion-level industrial chain groups and ten 1-billion-level or above emerging industrial chain groups, to form a modern industrial system supported by the real economy. Focus is placed on cultivation of leading enterprises, introduction of major projects, promotion of mending high-end industry chains, extending terminal chains, and strengthening chains as a whole, in order to create a new energy industry pattern of "One City, Five Parks and One Base". Centering around the intelligent new-energy vehicle city at the west, efforts will be made to promote the construction of "five parks", including new energy vehicle testing industrial park, intelligent manufacturing of new energy power battery park, new energy storage industrial park, new energy spare parts industrial park, and new energy vehicle equipment research and development park; and in the startup zone in the east section of Airport Digital Smart Port a super base of integrated photovoltaic energy storage base will be built that features deep "photovoltaic + energy storage" integration for green development.

　　Huadu District will release an Implementation Opinions on Promoting High-quality Development of New Energy Industry, which will address issues in five aspects, i.e. expanding industrial scale, cultivating development momentum, expanding application scenarios, encouraging technology research and development, and optimizing policy support, to enhance the innovation and comprehensive competitiveness of Huadu District's new energy industry. In the east and west wings, bases will be built for production of photovoltaic module, new energy storage battery and new energy vehicles. An approach of "one policy for one enterprise" will be adopted to cultivate leading backbone enterprises. The target to achieve is that the District’s new energy industry output value will reach 10 billion yuan by 2025, and 50 billion yuan by 2030.

　　Right at the event site, the government of Huadu District, Guangzhou signed contracts for 18 key projects involving a total investment of nearly 50 billion yuan and an estimated annual output value of 100 billion yuan, which cover new energy industry, airport industry and headquarters, and intelligent manufacturing industry, including Xieneng energy storage high-end manufacturing equipment base and listed company headquarters project, Jovo Group new energy project, Guangzhou Industrial Investment Holding Group (GIIHG) new energy storage project, Sirius power semiconductor chip industry base and energy storage headquarters project, and Teldf new energy vehicle supercharger project, etc.,

　　Empowerment of value

　　Uphold the idea of "Intelligent Manufacturing-supported District"

　　Build the largest intelligent and connected vehicle industry base in China

　　Praised as "China’s auto", "China's beauty capital", "China's leather goods capital" and "China's audio capital", Huadu is an ideal place for development and business. Positioned as the main region of Guangzhou's real economy and an important industrial base of advanced manufacturing in the Greater Bay Area, Huadu District accounts for a quarter the total industrial land of the city; and driven by led by Dongfeng Nissan and other pace setting enterprises, the District possesses great strength in industries of intelligent manufacturing and high-end equipment, a solid and powerful industrial foundation, and a vast prospect of development. In recent years, Huadu District has closely focused on the strategy of "building on the base of manufacturing" and firmly adhered to the goal of creating an "Intelligent Manufacturing-supported District". Thanks to its dedicated cultivation of the intelligent new-energy vehicle city at the west, forceful promotion of the localization of automobile industry chain, and continuous enhancement of its independent control over the industrial supply chain, an intelligent new energy vehicle industry system has taken shape that is led by Dongfeng Nissan, and has a hug cluster of world's top 500 auto parts related enterprises, and of intelligent innovative enterprises.

　　With more than 150 auto parts manufacturing and supporting enterprises gathered in Huadu, the District has an automobile industry base in the country that has the most complete and most comprehensively supported auto industry chain. In 2022, Dongfeng Nissan, the local flagship enterprise, successfully achieved the goal of 15 million vehicle sales, becoming the fastest joint venture, and the only Japanese joint venture, in China to complete the deed. On March 27, 2023, Didi Autonomous Driving, one of the first companies to obtain Guangzhou intelligent network demonstration operation qualification, officially started commercial operation in Huadu, Guangzhou, marking the entry of Huadu into the era of autonomous driving.

　　At present, aiming at the promising industry of intelligent and connected vehicles and new energy vehicles, and trying to seize the great opportunity ushered in by Guangzhou’s launch of the pilot project of mixed traffic with autonomous driving intelligent networked vehicles, Huadu is focusing on the "2+5+N" automotive industry platforms (2 main parks for engine factories, 5 auxiliary parks for intelligent connected and new energy vehicle parts, N key automobile industry projects); in addition to the largest automobile industry base in South China, another 100 square kilometers of land are assigned, and over 6.7 square kilometers are newly set aside, for the development of the automobile industry. All these are meant to support the capital increase and capacity expansion of existing high-quality core enterprises of auto parts, to quickly finalize the introduction of new high-quality projects, to promote the gathering and development of the intelligent and networked vehicle industry, to effectively push forward the development and application of new business formats of intelligent and networked vehicle industry in Huadu District, and eventually build in all aspects an innovative highland of intelligent and networked vehicle industry in the Greater Bay Area.

　　Empowerment of capacity

　　From the Greater Bay Area to the whole country

　　Huadu Economic Development Zone is expanding in scale and quality and drawing a new blueprint

　　In 2023, in order to build a world-class airport characterized with convenience and efficiency, industrial clustering, eco-friendliness and smartness, and to promote the development of airport economy in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Huadu Economic Development Zone decided to expand its scale and upgrade its quality. It is planned that the land coverage of the Zone will be increased from the 11.88 square kilometers of 2006 to 14.99 square kilometers, to include three additional areas: the east wing of Airport Digital Smart Port, the north and south sections of the intelligent new energy vehicle city in the west.

　　The scale and quality expansion of Huadu Economic Development Zone provides more space for the industrial upgrading in the whole District, a more reassuring land reserve guarantee for Guangzhou city's industrial planning, and to certain extent, an enhanced regional radiation effect even for the industrial development of the Greater Bay Area. Looking back at 2022, the operating income of for-profit above-scale service enterprises in Huadu District increased by 12% year-on-year, ranking the third in growth rate in Guangzhou city; the total retail sales of consumer goods was 78.815 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.4%, ranking the third in growth rate in the city; the output value of high-tech enterprises was about 190 billion yuan, ranking third in the city; contracts were signed for 150 new projects throughout the year, a year-on-year increase of 44%. In December 2022, a new investment cooperation agreement was signed between Huadu District and ZF, a Fortune Global 500 company, for automotive electronics factory project, singifying the birth of a 10-billion-yuan automotive electronics factory in Huadu; at the ceremony held in Guangzhou on January 29, 2023 for contract signing and ground breaking for major projects in the first quarter, two projects, including the Meituan Greater Bay Area Retail Technology Industry Base, chose to settle in Huadu, with a total investment of more than 3 billion yuan. And now the Huadu Parallel Sub-venue also witnesses the contract signing with a bunch of heavyweight investment enterprises. For example, the Alibaba Cainiao Network (Huadu) Digital Intelligence Industry Base project aspires to build a new manufacturing park that has logistics automation equipment, consumer electronics, intelligent and networked vehicles and other industries as its core components, Cainiao's global cross-border export supply chain as its engine, and the global layout and supply of the enterprise as it lever.

　　After more than 30 years of development, Huadu Economic Development Zone has emerged as an industrial cluster with vehicle and parts manufacturing as the leading industry, and supplemented by diversified cultivation and development of intelligent networked and new energy vehicles, intelligent equipment and other advanced manufacturing, and modern logistics. It has demonstrated outstanding industrial clustering effect and played a highlighted catalytic role. In 2021, Huadu Automobile Industry Base, which has Huadu Economic Development Zone as its core area, was recognized as a provincial high-tech industrial development zone and was approved as one of first characteristic (automotive) industrial parks in Guangdong. In 2020, Huadu Economic Development Zone was rated as one of the 10 "Outstanding High-quality Development Zones" in the survey and evaluation of high-quality development of provincial economic development zones.

　　Moving forward, Huadu Economic Development Zone will further secure more space for industrial development by adjusting and expanding the area, attract high-end elements, strengthen top-level planning for intelligent networked and new energy vehicle industry, focus on key development fields of artificial intelligence and digital economy, promote the transformation of "manufacturing of cars" to "intelligent manufacturing of cars", promote integrated development with the intelligent electronics industry cluster that is based on electronic information technology, intelligent manufacturing and digital economy, and eventually move from an industrial pattern that is "dominated by auto industry" to one in which "multiple industries lead in turn", so as to inject new vitality into economic transformation and development. At the same time, Huadu Economic Development Zone will set as its goal to become a national economic and technological development zone, and will concentrate the efforts of the whole District for its achievement; it will build an open platform that connects the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with the world outside and other parts of the country; and it will promote the transformation of Huadu Economic Development Zone from a provincial-level characteristic industrial park with focus on automobile industry to a national-level comprehensive economic development zone based on an international opening hub.

　　Empowerment of strength

　　With an open attitude

　　We are to create an international first-class business climate

　　Superb business climate has always been at the core of Huadu’s competitive strength and its most shining name card. Adhering to the idea of "help entrepreneurs, befriend investors, and serve taxpayers", Huadu took the lead in Guangzhou to introduce such mechanisms as chief project service provider, enterprise care provider, and "cross-departmental joint processing of four permits and certificates" , and released a number of pro-business policies, including "26 Pro-Business and Enterprise Supporting Rules", "10 Rules for Manufacturing Cost Reduction" and "49 Rules for the Recovery and Development or Service Industry" , and used more of the compressed fiscal expenditure on effectively helping industrial development and solving difficulties for enterprises, striving to provide a better environment for enterprise development.

　　Huadu District has fully implemented the system where the “first violins" are responsible for "across the board" promotion of business; with 32 leaders of the four sets of top leadership teams of the District leading by example, and all government agencies, towns, streets, management committees, and state-owned enterprises in the District being mobilized as vanguards, the entire District has been stimulated to form a joint force for investment promotion. Huadu District has been rated as District Making Excellent Progress in Investment Promotion in Guangzhou for two consecutive years; last year the District ranked first among the districts of the city in terms of number of new projects under negotiation, and was among the top five in the city in terms of completion of indicators of contract signing, registration and overseas visit. In order to seize the new wave of opportunities of economic recovery and development, Huadu District decided to took initiative steps, and a delegation led by District leaders visited NEON Group, RSI International, NEXT Federation, Nissan Headquarters, Marelli Group, Eichi Assist, and other key enterprises and institutions for investment promotion in Singapore and Japan, held Huadu’s first overseas investment promotion event in Tokyo for the past three years, which attracted over 60 representatives from well-known institutions and enterprises, such as Japan-China Economic Association, Japan External Trade Organization, Mizuho Bank, Hitachi Ltd., Takeda Pharmaceutical, and Canon Institute for Global Studies, further promoted Huadu’s cooperation with Japan and Singapore in the field of high-end industries and innovation, and demonstrated to them the determination and sincerity of the District to persistently deepen opening up and support investments made by foreign-funded enterprises.

　　Huadu was the first in Guangzhou city to introduce the mechanisms of chief project service provider, and enterprise care provider. In 2022, a total of 12 district leaders, 115 chief project service provider, and 73 project liaison officers provide point-to-point services in relation to the construction of 260 key projects. 31 District leaders were assigned to serve 139 key district enterprises, and 160 town and street department-level cadres took the role of enterprise care provider, providing service to 2,068 above-scale enterprises. So far the panel of chief project service providers has paid 2,987 visits to 260 key projects in the District and has investigated, coordinated and solved 155 problems. Enterprise care providers served relevant enterprises a 9,076 times and solved a total of 576 problems.

　　Talent are the primary resource. Solidly promoting the "four major projects" to attract talents with favorable environment, train them with consideration, care for them with sincerity, and warm them with heart, Huadu District is accelerating the construction of a talent hub in the northern part of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. In January 2023, the first assignment of settlement subsidies for 15 high-level talents (Class A) were allocated, with a cumulative amount of 1.165 million yuan. Encouragement and support are given to enterprises in the District to vigorously attract outstanding talents; in 2022, 115 applications for housing subsidies were granted and a total of 1.18 million yuan was given to talents imported by enterprises in the District.

　　The improvement of government service quality has effectively reduced enterprises’ transaction costs with the government, and policies such as tax and fee reduction, job stabilization and expansion, and "one-to-one" services have effectively played their roles. The past three years has witnessed steady growth in number of market entities in Huadu District. At the end of 2021, there were 205,200 registered market entities in Huadu District, up by 22.39% over 2019; and the number of newly registered market entities in the year reached 35,000, up by 34.86% over 2019. A poll of market entities of Huadu conducted in 2022 shows that enterprises in the District are generally satisfied with the business environment.

　　Right on the spot of the event, Huadu District announced a number of measures to promote high-quality development of air cargo industry, focusing on expanding and strengthening the air cargo industry chain; in particular, a newly established air cargo enterprise based in Baiyun International Airport will receive a one-time support of 5 million yuan for settling down, and a key industrial enterprises newly established in or relocated to Huadu District will receive 1 million incentive for every 100 million paid-up registered capital, up to 12 million yuan. Efforts will be made to help air cargo enterprises secure their talents; for example, a qualified domestic or foreign high-end talent, a spear-head talent, a high-end talent of Huadu or a member of Huadu excellent talent reserve pool may apply for rent-free housing, gift housing, preferential purchase of housing, settling-in allowance and other livelihood benefits; and a qualified high-level talent may be rewarded according to the standards stipulated in the Implementation Opinions of Huadu District on Accelerating Talent Attraction, which may be up to 1 million yuan a year.

　　Next, Huadu will also carry out investment promotion activities targeting key industries such as new energy storage, green new energy, and intelligent manufacturing, and will create the best quality environment and provide the most convenient services for enterprises, institutions and talents that come to invest or work here with the greatest sincerity and the greatest efforts.

　　It is right time to sail as the winds give benefit. Now, relying on its multiple advantages in industries, platforms, policies and business environment, Huadu District is working hard with passion to succeed in a world that expects achievements to pursue the glory of creating a magnificent new growth pole in the north of Guangzhou, and to secure a high-quality new future by embracing the market with an open mind.