Guangzhou outlines key science and technology growth drivers

Emerging sectors, new cutting-edge industries to boost economic, social development

Scientific and technological innovation has become an eye-catching feature of Guangzhou, with the city hoping to work with more leading innovation companies and people from the United States, local officials said.

Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, made innovation-driven development its key strategy for economic and social progress at the beginning of this year.

The city is focusing on the emerging industries of new-generation information technology, biology and health, and new-energy vehicles. It is also expediting the development of cutting-edge sectors, including artificial intelligence and robots, precision medicines, cloud computing and big data.

A precision medicine customer experience center, invested in by US-based Thermo Fisher Scientific, came into operation on Sept 19 in Guangzhou.

The 600-square-meter center showcases its products and services in genomics, proteomics and metabolomics. It also serves as a hub for client partnerships in establishing standard precision medicine platforms, as well as for joint research and development.

Cai Chaolin, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Guangzhou Committee, said: "Guangzhou is an engine of innovation."

He made the comments at an event in San Francisco last Thursday promoting the 2017 Fortune Global Forum to be held in Guangzhou in December.

Marilyn Librers, president of China Silicon Valley and mayor of Morgan Hill, California, has visited Guangzhou twice.

She said Guangzhou and the Silicon Valley share many similarities: both are located in bay areas, both have many higher education institutions, and have a large pool of professionals. She said her organization hopes to be a communications bridge between the two places, and contribute to the two countries' cooperation in science and technology.

With 120,000 high-tech and innovation enterprises in the city and an incubation area covering more than 8 million square meters, Guangzhou is implementing an ambitious plan for information technology, artificial intelligence, bioscience, new energy and new materials, Cai said.

New-generation information technology, artificial intelligence and biological medicine are three emerging sectors with huge potential, capable of promoting the city's creativity and competitiveness, local officials said. The combined value of the three industries in Guangzhou hit 470 billion yuan ($71.39 billion) in 2016.

The city government is formulating a five-year plan for promoting the three sectors and has set up four funds to support their development.

It is working to develop six industrial clusters, each worth 100 billion yuan, and aims to increase the three sectors' scale to nearly 1 trillion yuan in 2020.

The output value of the city's electronic information manufacturing sector reached 289.2 billion yuan last year, a year-on-year rise of about 7.9 percent.

The output value of communications equipment manufacturing amounted to 13.64 billion yuan in 2016. Representative companies in the field include Comba, a global leader in wireless communications, and information solutions and services.

The industrial value of smart equipment and robots in the city was about 49 billion yuan in 2016. There were 97 smart outfit companies as well as 86 smart module and key parts businesses in the city.

Guangzhou's industrial robot makers' products, such as robots that can carry things and drill, have significant market shares domestically because they are cost-effective.

Guangzhou was also home to 95 large industrial enterprises in the biological medicine and healthcare sector as of 2016, with their combined output value reaching nearly 34.6 billion yuan.

Cai said Guangzhou is a huge market.

"As a millennium business capital, we have ranked third in the Chinese mainland in terms of economic power for the past 28 years, after Shanghai and Beijing, equivalent to Hong Kong and Singapore," he said.

The monoclonal antibody biological medicine industrialization project of BeiGene started construction in March in the city, with an investment worth 2.3 billion yuan.

The biological science and technology park of GE Healthcare, a subsidiary of General Electric, began construction in June in Guangzhou, Xinhua News Agency reported.

songmengxing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 09/26/2017 page15)