Huadu District of Guangzhou, home to a world-class hub with integrated air-rail transport, an important strategic node in the big picture of domestic and international economic circulations, has now become a core hub, an attractive investment land, and an innovation highland in the northern part of the Greater Bay Area. On June 19, Guangzhou Huadu National Economic and Technological Development Zone

Digital Economy investment and Cooperation Conference & the 11th Guangzhou International Annual Investment Conference Huadu Section was successfully held under the theme of "Gather Wisdom in the Open Hub to Create GBA Future with Digital Power.

During the event, Huadu District gave a solemn introduction to the industrial carriers and business environment of the national economic development zone, launched ten star investment projects, initiated partnership with ten global investment partners, and established two overseas offshore service centers. There were video speeches delivered by number of academicians, and representatives from state-owned enterprises such as Dongfeng Nissan, Power China, Energy China, and CRRC, as well as from multinational companies like ZF, Valeo, and BASF. The event witnessed the contract signing of 48 key projects, released a list of 210 projects that have been initiated or completed since 2024, and the launch of 6 projects. The total investment value of projects in Huadu District that are signed, initiated and completed in this year alone has exceeded 100 billion yuan... The surging industrial vitality is a sign of the vibrant life and strong momentum of the Guangzhou Huadu National Economic and Technological Development Zone!

Outstanding achievements of the 10 star projects of investment 

Contracts signed on-site for 48 key investment projects

Huadu is embracing the world with an open heart. As a result of the District's full commitment to economic growth and investment promotion, international giants like ZF, Valeo, and Mahle have been attracted, settled and expanded in Huadu, while local new brands are surging with vitality.

Focusing on the three major characteristics of "high volume, full chain, strong driving force", the event revealed the "Ten Star Projects of Investment" of Huadu Economic and Technological Development Zone since 2021, showcasing the industrial aggregation effectiveness of a national economic and technological development zone through benchmarking cases.

In the automotive sector, with the settlement of projects such as Dongfeng Nissan's new energy production line, ZF Group's South China R&D center and electronics factory, Valeo's smart interaction R&D center and smart cockpit product expansion project, Didi's shared mobility headquarters in the Greater Bay Area and Didi autonomous driving, the District is building an automotive city with the most complete industry chain in South China.

In the digital economy sector, the settlement of projects such as JD's Greater Bay Area Smart City and Meituan's Greater Bay Area Retail Technology Industry Base, is promoting the extension from "application scenarios" to "underlying technologies."

In the new energy sector, projects such as the 16GW photovoltaic module industrial park of Gokin are driving upstream and downstream industry aggregation to achieve a transition from "point breakthroughs" to "cluster development.”

Further, a batch of promising star investment projects such as the Southern Regional Headquarters of Power Construction Corporation of China, the CTG Aranya Jiulong Lake Tourist Resort, and the Wanyang Smart Manufacturing City are in booming development, injecting strong momentum into the high-quality economic development of Huadu. Leaders of Huadu District pointed out, "These ten projects represent the main direction of Huadu District in developing new quality productive forces; and they are also concrete reflection of the competitiveness of Huadu District's investment environment. Each project is pushing the industrial chain towards high-end, intelligent, and green transitions.” The 48 key projects for which contracts were signed on site involve companies like Bilibili, Amap, and Wanyang. The projects cover digital economy, new energy and intelligent equipment, biomedicine, big health and cosmetics, airport economy, fashion consumer goods, etc., with digital economy as a focus of development. Huadu District's development of digital economy industry is taking off.　

Support of academicians: Huadu has unique advantages in the development of digital economy and it is the right time to do it!

Centering on the topic of deep integration of digital economy and real economy, experts and academicians on the site offered suggestions for the high-quality development of Huadu's digital economy.

Zhang Liqun, CAE academician and president of Xi'an Jiaotong University, said that Huadu District had outstanding location advantages, policy dividends and industrial foundation. Currently, Xi'an Jiaotong University was actively exploring a new mode of school-local cooperation with Huadu District. It has been proposed to prepare the establishment of Guangzhou (Huadu) Research Institute of Xi'an Jiaotong University, which will provide a solid scientific research support for the development of digital economy in Huadu.

“It is the right time for the uniquely endowed Huadu to develop commercial space industry,” according to Li Zhizhong, member of CAS and the International Academy of Astronautics, pointed out that Huadu District, with its strong industrial foundation, abundant space resources, strong platform support, superior ecological environment, and competent policy support, was able to provide a strong boost for the development of commercial aerospace industry.

Zhang Yue, member of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries, former vice president of University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB), observed that the USTB State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials and Huadu District were now jointly constructing the Research Institute of Green Hydrogen Industry Development in the Greater Bay Area and the Green Hydrogen Application Demonstration Base. In the future, continued efforts would be made to deepen “industry-academy-research-government”cooperation with Huadu, accelerate the in-depth integration of digital economy and green energy, and help the high-quality development of “Green Energy Valley” in GHM Greater Bay Area.

A new blueprint begins with the National Economic and Technological Development Zone

Upgrading of hub economy is accelerating

Huadu District gave presentation at the event highlighting the industrial carrier of the Guangzhou Huadu National Economic and Technological Development Zone. In October 2024, the State Council formally approved the upgrading of Guangzhou Huadu Economic Development Zone to a national economic and technological development zone, giving it the dual mission to“upgrade hub economy and demonstrate industrial innovation”. After the upgrading of the Development Zone from one in the“North of Guangzhou” to one of the “nation”, Huadu will take the air-rail dual hub as the engine to create a “strategic model room” for the integration of digital economy and real economy in GHM Greater Bay Area, and make Huadu a “wisdom gathering open hub”that will be a golden port connecting to the global industrial chains.

Strategic positioning. Huadu National Economic and Technological Development Zone is strategically positioned as an “Open Hub, Highland of Smart Manufacturing and Vibrant New City”, and is merging deeply with the overall landscape of national development. Included in the “Northern Growth Pole Cooperative Development Plan”, it has been given by Guangzhou the role of new international open platform in GHM Greater Bay Area that will serve to promote the transformation from“flow away traffic” to “retained economic benefits”. Against the background of this strategic planning, Huadu has become a key node in the strategy of “dual circulation economy”to couple domestic market and international supply chains - it will project influence to ASEAN to the south through Baiyun International Airport, and interact with Pan-Pearl River Delta (PPRD) region to the north through Guangzhou North Railway Station, forming a new opening up pattern of “air-rail transportation for connectivity of internal and external markets”.

Core functions. Guided by the positioning of “Open Hub”, the District will strive to build a new platform for international opening in the Greater Bay Area, and play to the advantages of the three-dimensional transportation network consisting of Baiyun International Airport and Guangzhou North Railway Station to create a strategic node for the domestic and international economic circulations; aiming at the “Highland of Smart Manufacturing ”, the District will make every effort to build an important national carrier zone of advanced manufacturing bases, cultivate 100-billion yuan industry clusters such as intelligent network-connected new energy automobile, air-port based high-end equipment, and drive the shift of advanced manufacturing industry to the middle and high end of the value chain; and upholding the idea of "Vibrant New City", the District as an important area for the international trade centers will rely on the integration of industry and city development and explore resources such as the comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce and the international aviation hub to drive innovation in trade models and achieve efficient aggregation of talent, technology, and capital and other factors.

Brand new planning. The spatial layout of “one core, two cities and three ports” is planned to optimize the allocation of industrial resources. "One core" as the innovation engine. The Huadu Lake Digital Intelligence Pioneer Core will be relied on to gather high-end R&D institutions and digital economy enterprises and make an intersection of green low-carbon and science and technology innovation. "Two cities" for building a solid manufacturing foundation. Stepping on the basis of intelligent network-connected new energy automobile city, efforts will be focused on complete vehicle manufacturing, battery R&D, and intelligent driving industry chain, to create a whole chain ecology of‘R&D - manufacturing - testing - application’. And relying on the international aviation city, with Baiyun International Airport as the core hub, efforts will be focused on the development of airport-based industries such as aviation manufacturing, airport-based logistics and convention economy, to creates a new global highland of the aviation industry. “Three ports”that strengthen the function of the open hub. Airport-based Digital Intelligence Port: using air logistics as a tie to develop intelligent supply chain and cross-border e-commerce; International Fashion Intelligent Port: integrating design, branding and trade resources to cultivate a new force in fashion consumption; Cross-border e-commerce International Hub Port: focusing on digital trade and customs facilitation to build a global e-commerce cargo distribution center and a one-stop service platform.

Industrial layout. Aiming at achieving “12635”modernized industrial system, Huadu Economic and Technological Development Zone is building a gradient industrial layout to promote the development of industrial agglomeration and clustering, consisting of Four hundred-billion industry clusters, Five ten-billion industry clusters and Five” modern service industries. The District will focus on intelligent network-connected new energy automobile industry, in combination of vehicle manufacturing, battery technology, automatic driving and other aspects of innovation, to create a national demonstration highland for intelligent network-connected automobile and intelligent transportation application; develop low altitude economy and aerospace industry, with emphasis on drones, general aviation manufacturing and aviation services, to build an “airport +” industrial ecological system; plan the development of new energy and new energy storage industry, centering on hydrogen energy, photovoltaic, new energy storage and other fields, to provide strong support for the achievement of the “dual-carbon” goal; and go deep into the fashion consumer goods industry to nurture new brands of national tide consumption by integrating design, branding, e-commerce and other factors. Meanwhile focus will also be placed on the five multi-billion race tracks newly emerged, namely, intelligent equipment and robotics, biomedicine and health, embodied intelligence, cells and genes, and cutting-edge new materials; by placing the strategic emerging industries and future industries in a coordinated overall development plan, efforts will be made to form a closed loop of innovation ecology featuring“breakthroughs in cutting-edge technologies + application of scenarios”. Simultaneous endeavor will be found in five major modern service industries, including modern logistics and supply chain, exhibition, modern trade, tourism and leisure, professional services, which, guided by“lay foundation with manufacturing industry, and empower with the service industry”, will promote the synergistic development of industrial clusters and modern service industry to build high-quality development of industrial ecosystem.　　　

Expansion of circle of investor friends

Connection to resource around the world

Prosperous economy comes with prosperous industry, and strong industry chains are bridges to the world. Based on the Greater Bay Area, serving the whole country, linking with ASEAN and facing the world, Huadu is accelerating the gathering of international high-quality factors and resources, and improving comprehensively the resource allocation and guiding capacity, to better support the construction of the Greater Bay Area.

Overseas nest building. The conference also witnessed through video the plaque unveiling ceremonies of two two major overseas offshore service centers in Frankfurt, and Singapore. It is another important attempt of Huadu District after the establishment of the first European service center in Heidelberg last year to step forward to offer service, trying to actively form connection with global high-quality resource enterprises. In 2024, Huadu District set up the first overseas investment promotion office - Invest Huadu (Germany) Offshore Service Center in Heidelberg, Germany, which has provided more than 50 project clues and resulted in visits to 30 German enterprises and organizations such as Gelita GmbH.

Resource conversion. The Conference held a global investment partner awarding ceremony. Three major state-owned enterprise platforms, namely, Guangzhou Industrial Investment Holding Group, Guangzhou Financial Holdings, and Guangzhou Industry Investment Holding Group, and four major investment banks were selected as the first batch of“investment spokespersons” for the building of a fast channel for “global projects to Huadu”. At the same time, Huadu District Investment Incentive Scheme was released, which offers a reward up to 3 million RMB for project referrer, activating a new driver for investment promotion.

Promote investment cooperation. Wang Qiang, party secretary of Dongfeng Motor Company Limited (Dongfeng Nissan) said, N7 recorded the best performance ever, ranking among the top of all vehicle models in the first month after it launch to market, second only to Xiaomi SU7. The number of binding orders of N7 exceeded 20,000 in the first 50 days, making it the fastest joint venture pure electric models to reach this record. Another 100 units were ordered right on the spot. “Everybody is saying you have to line up to buy N7, so I take my turn! We will purchase 100 new Nissan N7 for our company's business car fleet and for employee benefits.” Placing a generous order, Lin Xiaofei, general manager of Wanyang Group Guangzhou-Zhaoqing Region, exclaimed that the excellent business environment of Huadu District had encouraged Wanyang to increase its investment many times,“In a mere half year, Wanyang has already successfully initiated five projects; and it is worth mentioning that three of them created a brand new breakthrough where project construction began right after land acquisition, and signaled the completion of the investment promotion. We will invest additional 20 billion in Huadu this year, continuing our deep commitment to Huadu.”

Attracting giants. BASF, a Fortune Global 500 company, is quite optimistic about the business environment in Huadu. Mao Yu, Senior Marketing Manager of Corporate Communications at BASF in Greater China, said on the spot, "140 years ago, it was at the port of Guangzhou that BASF's first synthetic dye products entering China were unloaded, and distributed to all parts of the country. And 140 years later, with the development of Guangdong, in particular, Guangzhou, this place has developed into a global hub for goods, a manufacturing center and an important market for BASF. Therefore, we think that it is of special significance to hold the 140th anniversary commemorating BASF's start in China here. This idea is strongly supported by the Guangzhou Municipal and Huadu District governments, and planning has already begun for its implementation. We will reveal details later on."

Valeo, a time-honored company of 102 year history, has operated in China for more than 30 years, and has been upgrading its visual system, power system and intelligent system. An agreement to increase capital and expand production capacity was signed last month between Huadu District and Valeo Group, which plans to invest in the expansion of intelligent cockpit R&D and production base in Huadu. “In the environment of friendly relations between China and France, leaders at all levels of the Huadu District government have, over the past four years, managed to establish a friendly business environment for enterprises in many ways, taking the initiative to solve problems for enterprises, and key leaders going down to enterprises to give efficient support in investment and expansion of production. This is at the core of why Valeo continues to increase its presence in Huadu,” said Zhang Aixin, General Manager of Valeo Comfort Driving Assistance Systems (Guangzhou) Co.,Ltd.

Brighten the brand of “Invest Huadu” Huadu District was honored as “China's Most Attractive Urban Area for Investment in 2024” and “Top 10 Parks with Best Business Environment in 2024”; Huadu Economic and Technological Development Zone was honored as “Best Economic Functional Park of the Year”. The “Five Certificates in One Office” was selected as one of the 100 best practices in business environment of China's development zones, and “Accelerating the Realization of Autonomous Driving” was selected as one of the top 10 benchmark cases of Guangdong's new productivity development. All these send strong invitation signals to “Invest Huadu!".　　

Focus on digital economy development

Various highlights of platform investment promotion

Huadu District has shown strong development momentum in the field of digital economy. Last year, Huadu joined forces with Huawei and built the Huadu Digital Service Platform for New Industrialization, which is the first city-level industrial artificial intelligence center in the country and has become the only manufacturing digital transformation promotion center in Guangdong province. “Huawei's deep cooperation with Huadu District comes from our shared understanding of 'new industrialization' and 'AI+',” said Wang Hongyou, general manager of Huawei Guangdong Government and Enterprise Division, in whose opinion, Huadu District has a unique business charm and three irreplaceable advantages: firstly, a good industrial foundation; Its five national designations support three hundred-billion-yuan industrial clusters, and provide rich application scenarios for the big industrial model; secondly, bold and visionary strategy; To “base the District on intelligent manufacturing” , they promote introduction of AI to workshops; to‘strengthen the District with transport hub’ , they realize the air-rail intermodal transportation that can reach every part of the Greater Bay Area in 30 minutes; to‘invigorate the District with reform’, they crack the pain points of enterprise transformation with speedy approval process; and thirdly, surging ecological vitality; The strength indicated by the 39th ranking among the top 100 industrial districts in China and the clustering of more than 500 upstream and downstream enterprises have made Huadu a preferred testing ground for digital economy innovation!

Relying on such leading platform enterprises as Jingdong, Ali, Meituan, and Didi, and on the landing of projects emerging industries, like those of Amap and Bilibili, Huadu District has built up a new pattern of digital economy development featuring“consolidation of traditional advantages + expansion of emerging ecology”. Jingdong, Ali, Meituan, Didi and other leading enterprises are investing in Huadu's platform economy. Jingdong Intelligent Industrial Park - Guangzhou Huadu project is the first industrial ecological platform in South China characterized by “smart manufacturing + e-commerce”, which relies on the resource advantages of Jingdong to offer full range empowerment for the growth and development of enterprises; Meituan is setting up a retail science and technology industry base in Huadu for the Greater Bay Area, which will be a modern industrial park integrating production, processing, distribution, and trading functions; it may, upon completion, become a food and fresh produce supply chain base and industrial development highland that will serve the entire Greater Bay Area; Didi has set up its Shared Mobility Operation Headquarters of Greater Bay Area in Huadu District, while Didi Autonomous Driving has begun its demonstration operation in Huadu; Huadu is currently joining forces with Amap to develop projects in the field of low-altitude economy, and is working on a three-dimensional spatial-temporal digital map base; and Bilibili's BLG Valorant team has been formally renamed as “Guangzhou Huadu BLG Valorant team”. In addition, with the recently released Implementation Rules of Huadu District for Supporting the Digital Development of Manufacturing Industry, Huadu District is pushing forward the policy of promoting the development of digital economy and e-sports industry. It expands its potential partner list and actively pay visit to them, striving to promote more high-quality platform enterprises to invest in Huadu.

“Relying on a deep industrial foundation, Huadu District is walking on the road of integration and innovation of the digital economy and the real economy,” remarked Wu Minghao, director of the Huadu District Productivity Promotion Center, who continued to say that the digital service platform for new type industrialization could provide enterprises with full-chain and one-stop digital services such as planning and consulting, digital diagnosis, industrial Internet application, and industrial AI application. The platform has now 35 AI and SAAS applications available for use, more than 300 registered enterprises, and more than 1,200 enterprises in contact, and it is expected that more than 5,000 enterprises will be enrolled this year. In the future, the platform will continue to explore specific scenarios for applications in industry chain and supply chain, and accelerate the application of industrial artificial intelligence, to promote the high-quality development of the digital economy in the District.

Keep going for the promising future! The event also witnessed the initiation of 6 key projects, including those of Wanyang and ZTO. Huadu District will promote the commencement and completion of 68 key projects in the second half of the year, with a total investment of more than 40 billion yuan. 36 projects, including Guangdong New Energy Circular Economy Zero Carbon Industrial Park, China Resources International Pharmaceutical Supply Chain, and Alibaba New Retail Supply Chain South China Headquarters have start full-scale construction; and 32 projects, including Power China Greater Bay Area Science and Technology Innovation Center, Jingdong Intelligent Industrial Park, Shitian headquarters and production, will soon be completed and put into operation, injecting new momentum.for high-quality development.