Though it is still during the Chinese New Year holiday, Lingnan has seen a luxuriant spring with trees and grass all turning green. Trains travel swiftly on the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway carrying people with dreams to China’s Guangdong province; Vehicles on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZM Bridge) flow incessantly to the Zhuhai Port to access all parts of the Greater Bay Area (GBA).
Guangdong, whose economic aggregate just surpassed 13 trillion yuan - ahead of all other provinces in China, continues to play a leading role and shoulder the main responsibility. On February 18, the first working day after the Chinese New Year holiday, Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government held another conference on high-quality development. The conference focuses on building strong industries and technology that reinforce each other to nurture new productive forces and accumulate new momentum for future development.
Spring arrives earlier for a diligent man. Under the direction of General Secretary Xi Jinping, Guangdong is sparing no effort to scale the heights of industrial technology and upgrade its “hard power” for high-quality growth. Everywhere in the province, people are busy sowing hopes and racing against the time to move forward. It is really a delight to see such better Guangdong.
This photo taken on September 8, 2021 shows the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone in Shenzhen. (Photo by Mao Siqian, a Xinhua news reporter)
Seeing the big picture to shoulder the heavy responsibility of leading the Chinese-style modernization drive
Altogether 3.02 million new energy vehicles (NEVs) were sold, ranking 1st in the world; another 7 ro-ro ships will be put into service in the coming two years; one (and more in the future) out of every four NEVs in China is (will be) made in Guangdong…
“These achievements are the results of Guangdong’s adherence to the policy of focusing on manufacturing, accelerating new productive forces and pursuing high-quality development,” said Wang Chuanfu, chairman and president of BYD Company Ltd. at the Guangdong High-Quality Development Conference on February 18, portraying a vibrant emerging industrial ecology where business and government work hand in hand.
This is the second year in a row that Guangdong has held such a high-quality development conference. The conference, conducted at the beginning of the Year of Dragon, witnessed excited representatives from all walks of life appealing for greater efforts to foster new productive forces.
New productive forces are new in terms of science and technology, the mode of production, and industrial ecology. The key lies in driving a qualitative leap in productivity with scientific and technological innovation. Guangdong, a major economic and manufacturing province endowed with rich sci-tech resources and a strong capacity for sci-tech innovation, should make it a strategic move and long-term policy to develop new productive forces and spearhead innovation-driven development across the country. There is no shrinking this heavy responsibility.
Across the province, there is now good momentum in new productive forces and a host of achievements have been made in this regard, both in the sky and on the sea, in the micro and virtual fields. Skyward, “Kunlong” AG600 has been successfully developed; DJI drones sell well over the world; quantum communication, commercial spaceflights and low-altitude economy are developing vigorously. At the deep sea, with the accelerated construction of the cold spring ecosystem, ocean drillers and deep-sea research centers, deep-sea development capacity has been improved significantly. In the micro field, spallation neutral source provided a new tool for the development of life science and material science, and microbial researches resulted in the discovery of new heat and protein sources. As for the virtual space, the Internet, big data, cloud computing, block chain and artificial intelligence are vying to develop and the digital economy is just unfolding.
Guangdong is working at full speed to improve its development quality with new productive forces. By transforming existing productive forces and creating new ones with science and technology, Guangdong vows to win this tough speed race, endurance race as well as relay race.
Guo Yonghang, Standing Committee member of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee, said that Guangzhou will do everything to serve the province and the whole China as they embark on the new journey. They will work bravely and energetically for another 20 years to transform the city of Guangzhou.
Meng Fanli is deputy secretary of Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and secretary of Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee. He noted that Shenzhen will move faster to develop new productive forces, promote high-quality development, build industrial and technological innovation centers and advanced manufacturing centers of global influence, and create high-quality and efficient modern industrial system and economic system with greater international competitiveness.
Lu Yixian who is secretary of Yangjiang Municipal Party Committee, indicated that Yangjiang will drive the deep integration of innovation, industry, capital and talent chains, develop and strengthen the four 100-billion-yuan industry clusters (i.e., advanced materials, equipment manufacturing, green energy & new energy storage, modern agriculture), and push for a sharp increase in the city’s overall strength.
According to Chen Wei, president of Guangzhou CanSemi Technology Inc, Guangdong’s integrated circuit industry has entered the fast lane characterized by rapid iterations. Going forward, CanSemi - a leader in industrial chain manufacturing, will play a leading role ecologically to drive rapid, high-quality growth sustained by major project construction and powered by independent innovation.
In Foshan, a central commencement activity for major projects was under way on the afternoon of February 18 to promptly implement the requirements of the provincial high-quality development conference. Zheng Ke, vice chairman of Guangdong CPPCC and secretary of Foshan Municipal Party Committee, urged the economic power Foshan to play a pivotal role and get off to a good start with major program construction. The goal is to ensure that Foshan break the 4-trillion-yuan mark in total industrial output value above designated size as soon as possible.
This photo taken on July 28, 2022 shows the fully automated terminal in Phase IV of Nansha Sub-Port, Guangzhou Port. (Photo by Deng Hua, a Xinhua news reporter)
Seizing the opportunity to embrace the “spring of science” as time waits for no man
Dream-seekers will come once the platform is ready.
In 2022, renowned biologist Nieng Yan returned to China from Princeton University in the U.S. to serve as president of the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (SMART) and then director of the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory. In November 2023, Yan was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
In just six months, the roughcast house has transformed into a modern laboratory with the bio-industry incubator only ten meters across the street. And even better, talents have been recruited at the same time of lab construction. So far, SMART and the laboratory have attracted nearly 70 top minds. “The achievements have been admired by all the visiting peers. My dream has taken root and blossomed in Shenzhen,” said Yan, “During the year SMART was being set up, “service” and “guarantee” were the most mentioned words of government departments at all levels in Guangdong province including Shenzhen.
Throughout the history of industrial revolution, Manchester in the U.K., Ruhr in Germany, and Silicon Valley in the U.S. have all played an important role as the cradle of innovation. Globally, the deepening of the new round of sci-tech revolution and industrial transformation, combined with China’s shift to innovation-driven and high-quality development, has ushered in a golden period for science and technology.
Zhang Liqun, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and president of South China University of Technology, said that the university will launch the Priority Core and Key Technologies Program to sustain the development of new productive forces. They will deepen collaborative research in major demands, large platforms, large teams and multiple disciplines, seize the commanding heights of the world’s sci-tech frontier, achieve more breakthroughs, and foster new growth drivers for the development of new productive forces.
Historic opportunities can be transient; when fighting at close quarter, it’s the brave that will win.
- This is a magnificent revolutionary change, as well as a race for strategic commanding heights. By seizing the opportunity, one can overtake and rise as a latecomer, while missing the opportunity will result in wider gap and being put in a disadvantageous position. Time waits for no man; It is in this spirit that Guangdong is striving to be the source of innovation by focusing on disruptive and cutting-edge technologies and strategic leading industries.
- Talents are treated as a treasure in Guangdong. An increasing number of scientific and technological professionals, investors and entrepreneurs are coming to the province. In addition to 45,000 certified foreign talents, there are now 191 academicians and 940,000 high-level talents working full-time in the region.
Guangdong is a populous and educational province, and we will base our work on this reality to turn demographical dividend into innovation and development dividends through high-quality education, to form a virtuous cycle of education, technology and talents, and build the talent base necessary for supporting new productive forces, said Zhu Kongjun, director of Guangdong Provincial Department of Education.
- Governments of Guangdong work together with local enterprises. It is in Guangdong that Huawei, Midea and BYD went through the tests of the market to become a world-class innovator. It is also here that specialized and sophisticated enterprises producing new and unique products developed and flourished. The province houses more than 18 million business entities, and over 75,000 high-tech enterprises, both state-owned, private and foreign.
“Enterprises are the mainstays in high-quality development of the real economy, and also in technological innovation,” said Gong Guoping, Party secretary of Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology. We should make it a consensus to respect entrepreneurs, allow enterprises to play a leading role in industrial and technological breakthroughs, and do a good job in serving these market entities, he said.
- Guangdong uses the market to foster growth drivers. “We should translate the advantage in market size into a winning advantage in innovative development”; “We will ensure that more and more new technologies and products are first applied and promoted in Guangdong market”; “Technological innovation in Guangdong requires the active participation of enterprises” …These voices from the conference venue made entrepreneurs even more resolved to develop in the province.
In a bid to implement the spirit of the Guangdong High-Quality Development Conference, said Li Chuyuan, chairman of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings Limited, the company will work proactively to promote the deep integration of pharmaceutical and health industry with the digital economy, and strive to be the vanguard of high-quality growth. For the company, the theme for 2024 will be the “Year of Digital Economy”. Next, the company will focus on tackling hard-nut problems in science and technology, promote innovation elements in industry-university-research cooperation, and accelerate the modernization, industrialization and internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine.
- Guangdong seeks vitality through reforms. Guangdong is now actively reforming the local science and technology management organization to make the reform of science and technology system deeper and more specific, and to break through the bottlenecks that restrict industrial and technological innovation. The new whole-nation system, a powerful means of overcoming core and key technologies, facilitates the close integration of a well-functioning government and an efficient market, and better realizes the transition from strong technologies to strong enterprises, strong industries, and a strong economy. Aside from its large number of enterprises, Guangdong is well on its way to become a major province of laboratories. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area International Science and Technology Innovation Center, the Comprehensive National Science Center, and the high-level talent hub have been constructed; Equipment and facilities of national strategic importance such as Pengcheng Laboratory, Guangzhou Laboratory, and large-scale scientific facility have been deployed successively. Moreover, Guangdong has seen the location of national technology innovation centers, manufacturing innovation centers, and industrial innovation centers, with a collection of high-level universities, research institutions and technologically leading enterprises. As such, Guangdong has built a solid foundation and advantage in industrial and technological innovation, as demonstrated by its comprehensive regional innovation capability which has ranked first in the country for seven years running.
Ai Xuefeng, director of Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission and director of Guangdong Greater Bay Area Office, said that they will focus on one key link - the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements, and they will build the pilot test platform system as an effective means of achieving that purpose. To be specific, a series of pilot plant test verification platforms will be established in the fields of integrated circuit, new energy storage, and biomanufacturing to provide enterprises with low-rate initial production, material and equipment verification, production process verification, and other services.
This photo taken on September 17, 2021 shows the Hengqin Bridge. (Photo by Deng Hua, a Xinhua news reporter)
Taking the right road to confidently build strong industries and technology that reinforce each other
The investment has exceeded 30 billion yuan, and another 10 billion yuan will be invested this year; The project is progressing more smoothly than planned, with more than 40 million safe man-hours achieved; a number of supporting projects amounting to 15 billion yuan have settled in the locality and are due to operate by the end of the year… Tan Ranke, chairman of ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co., Ltd. spoke with excitement about the USD 10 billion plus Huizhou Ethylene Chemical Complex Project (Phase I) in Guangdong Province, “There are bound to be some challenges in moving forward with large-scale projects, and we are fully confident that with the continued support of governments of all levels in Guangdong, these challenges will be successfully solved.” In the best reason of spring with its blossoming flowers, people in Lingnan where generation after generation has worked hard and made contributions, are full of pride and confidence in the bright prospect of developing new productive forces and realizing high-quality development.
Their confidence comes from the impressive development results. Over the past year, Guangdong, like the rest of the country, has made steady progress while ensuring stability. It was the first in China to realize an economic aggregate of more than 1.3 trillion yuan and its economic structure was further optimized. Breakthroughs were made in a number of key and core technologies. New technologies, new industries and new drivers of growth developed vigorously. In the four trillion-yuan cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan and Dongguan, transformation and upgrading has accelerated and the path of high-quality development has grown wider and wider.
Their confidence comes from the favorable geographical conditions and support of the people. Every season there seems like spring making it suitable for work all year round. So far, Guangdong’s permanent population has reached 127 million, and its daily real-time population approximates 150 million. This is the place for people to realize their dreams, where everyone can innovate and create, and achieve great success. This is the land where industry and technology reinforce each other to create a bright prospect.
From the surging wind power in eastern Guangdong to the sea farming in western Guangdong and the fragrant “golden fruits” in northern Guangdong, since last year, these areas have been doing their best to catch up by implementing the 100-counties 1,000-towns and 100,000-villages high-quality development program. This wave of practices aimed to strengthen counties, towns and villages has helped to constantly narrow regional gaps as well as gaps between urban and rural areas. So far, Guangdong has basically put in place a tiered diagnosis and treatment system that centers on expanding and balancing high-quality medical resources. That allows more than 99% of the local residents to receive medical treatment in the province, 95% in the city and 85% in the county where they live, said Huang Fei, deputy secretary of the Leading Party Members’s Group, deputy director and first-class inspector of Guangdong Provincial Health Commission.
A bridge over the sea ushers in a new chapter for the GBA. During this year’s Spring Festival holiday, the HZM Bridge - the world’s longest cross-sea bridge, saw a record flow of people and vehicles time and again. It bore witness to the “two-way” happy life in the GBA created by residents of both Guangdong and Hong Kong/Macao. Data show that more than 3,200 Hong Kong and Macao professionals are now practicing in the mainland, and over 3,500 people have obtained skill certificates issued by the three sides thanks to the “one exam and multiple certificates” regime.
Zhang Haoren, founder of True Health (Guangdong Hengqin) Medical Technology Co., Ltd., which has mastered the core technology for puncture surgery robots, said that guided by industrial demand, the company has made forward-looking arrangements and in-depth innovations. We have applied for and obtained more than 200 patents, and we also undertook relevant key projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology. We are confident about our future development in Guangdong, said Zhang.
Over the vast expanse of water in the Lingdingyang bay, bridge towers stand tall and the bridge floor winds into the sea. During the Spring Festival holiday, laborers there worked day and night to make full use of each minute. The Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge, which has been open to traffic, stretches like a dragon across the eastern and western banks of the Pearl River Estuary. It is opening up a new future for the integrated development of the GBA city cluster.
With unwavering courage, great confidence and perseverance, Guangdong is now eyeing new heights. The road ahead will not be smooth, but the pursuit of high-quality development will surely lead to a brighter prospect.
The greatest truths are the simplest while hard work is always the key. The blessed land of Lingnan enjoys favorable weather conditions. History never fails innovators and strivers; The people of Guangdong are so ambitious and determined in their pursuit of the new goal that they are bound to create more miracles and achieve greater success.
