Dongguan gives its tech firms policy push
Companies in Dongguan, a major manufacturing base in the Pearl River Delta, will receive a series of preferential policies and financial support in the years to come, through a local government plan aimed at upgrading local industries.
The plan, announced on Friday, will select 200 pilot firms. The latter will be encouraged to boost their market competitiveness by increasing investment in technologies, developing new businesses, restructuring existing units and introducing more service-oriented manufacturing.
The companies will be selected from a pool of private sector manufacturers in fields like high-tech that are foreign funded and listed, according to the local government.
Liang Weidong, mayor of Dongguan, said each of the pilot companies is expected to post double-digit growth of both revenue and profit by 2021-end.
"After years of rapid development (off the back of China's opening up and reforms in the late 1970s), Dongguan needs to shift its focus to development of advanced manufacturing and high-tech businesses, to maintain sustainable economic growth," said Liang.
Advanced or value-added manufacturing and high-tech businesses will account for 50-52 percent of Dongguan's industrial output by 2021. Most of the pilot companies are engaged in emerging industries like information technology, he said.
"Companies will be supported financially in technology, research and development, market expansion and land use, as well as by way of other preferential tax policies."
In addition, other local firms with 5 billion yuan ($726.3 million) in annual sales each, will receive similar backing, he said.
In recent years, an increasing number of technology-driven companies have emerged in Dongguan, a city traditionally known for labor-intensive manufacturing.
"Increased efforts in research and development, along with effective marketing and advertising, helped us see a strong growth over the years," said Shi Yujian, senior vice-president of Vivo Mobile Communication Technology.
