Annual conference promises to spur growth in Guangzhou
Region has seen international financing rise steadily in recent years
A window to showcase the country’s high-quality development and achievements of Guangzhou’s reform and opening-up, the seventh Guangzhou Annual Investment Conference kicked off on March 30. It offers a vital platform for China and the outside world to deepen cooperation and boost investment, local officials said.
The conference consists of one general assembly, six overseas branch venues, and 14 special events. For the first time, it set up six overseas branch venues in five countries — Germany, Israel, the United States, New Zealand and Singapore.
With “Pioneering New Growth and Surging New Vitality” as the theme, this year’s event invites members from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, overseas agencies, business associations and international leaders to discuss issues such as the construction of a new development pattern with domestic and international dual circulation.
Hong Qian, chief of the Guangzhou bureau of commerce, said the conference has become an important investment cooperation platform in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Hong said Guangzhou is a metropolis with the most competitive overall operating costs for enterprises.
The city has a click-to-start entrepreneurial environment, response-upon-demand business environment, abundant production factors and strong overall market potential.
In 2020, Huawei, Baidu, and Deloitte set up legal entities in the city for the first time, and AstraZeneca’s South China headquarters is also expected to be in Guangzhou.
“Recognition by world-class companies also means that Guangzhou will join hands with the world’s top companies to promote the development of key industries such as the digital economy, biomedicine and high-end services to a new level,” he said.
“In the future, Guangzhou will strive to build a new generation of communication technology as well as smart and new energy vehicles, biomedicine and health products, smart equipment, robots and other emerging pillar industries,” he added.
According to data from the Guangzhou bureau of commerce, the city used 49.372 billion yuan ($7.67 billion) of foreign capital in 2020, an increase of 7.5 percent yearon-year. The number of contracted projects reached 931, a year-on-year increase of some 54 percent. There were a total of 1,096 registered projects, a year-on-year increase of about 163 percent.
In 2020, foreign-funded enterprises in Guangzhou contributed more than 50 percent of the city’s total industrial output value and the added value of those companies with annual business revenue surpassing 20 million yuan each.
They accounted for 60 percent of the high-tech industrial output value of those companies with annual business revenue surpassing 20 million yuan each, and 37 percent of the city’s total import and export value, which helped rev up the city’s economic development and industrial upgrading.
By the end of 2020, a total of 309 Fortune Global 500 companies had invested in Guangzhou, contributing to a total of 1,166 projects.
Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce show that in January 2021, Guangzhou’s actual use of foreign capital was $517 million, a yearon-year increase of 4.9 percent.
During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), Guangzhou’s actual use of foreign capital exceeded $32.83 billion, and maintained a growth rate of more than 5 percent for five consecutive years.