GZ-SZ Science & Technology Innovation Corridor to be built into China's Silicon Valley

GUANGZHOU, China, Oct. 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 22, the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Corridor was established as the provincial authorities gave the go-ahead in an official planning, according to the Information Office of People's Government of Guangdong Province.

The 180-odd-km long economic belt covering an area of 11,000 sq km in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan, will get a boost to grow into China's Silicon Valley. With the best innovation resources accumulated during the past 40 years of China's reform and opening up, the corridor will be the nation's major innovation engine and gateway for the province to connect global innovation trends.

According to the planning, the corridor, set for completion by 2030, will become core of the Pearl River Delta National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone and a globally influential innovation enterprise cluster in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and even in China.

In April this year, Chinese President Xi instructed Guangdong to facilitate China to carry forward supply-side structural reform, implement innovation-driven development strategy, and build an open economy. In May, following President Xi's instructions, the province proposed the idea of developing Guangzhou-Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Corridor at the 12th provincial party congress.

Over the years, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan have mustered numerous innovation resources including talents, technologies and capital, the synergy of which, once leveraged, will boost the innovation-driven development in South China and the Guangdong- Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

"Guangzhou-Shenzhen expressway is an important channel connecting the Greater Bay Area with international science and technology trend," said Zhang Xiaoqiang, executive vice-chairman of China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

In the eyes of local business people, the corridor will connect the leading enterprises and those start-ups with great potentials and it will see a better flow of resources and elements for innovation, driving forward the innovation in Pearl River Delta and also in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

In recent years, Guangdong has adopted the innovation-driven development strategy and upgraded its industrial structure. In 2016, the province saw 250,000 new patents licensed and 20,000 international patent applications, in addition to 160,000 valid invention patents, topping any other regions in China. Now there are about 20,000 high-tech enterprises in Guangdong, accounting for over one third of the innovative enterprises and ranking first in number in China.

In the eyes of Ma Xiangming, chief planner of the Guangdong Urban and Rural Planning and Design Institute, the east bank of the Pearl River has already become an integrated region, and this region has shaped a sound climate for innovation with enterprises playing an active role.

Ma said that developing the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is a major measure for the Pearl River Delta to promote industrial transformation and upgrading and become a world-class city cluster, adding that all world-class city clusters are driven by dominant service sector and that as the service industry in the Pearl River Delta is derived from manufacturing industry, technological innovation is an inevitable way out.

With a total area accounting for 15% of the Pearl River Delta, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan yield about 60% of the region's GDP. The three cities have a solid foundation for innovative economy, being home to over 60% of the high-tech enterprises in the province.

Eight local enterprises in the area have entered the list of the Fortune Global 500 and world-renowned enterprises are developing sturdily here, including Huawei, Tencent, ZTE, DJI, OPPO and Vivo.

"The corridor gains its name because the industries, the elements for innovation and the enterprises have all gathered here, which has formed a cluster of innovation. The Guangzhou-Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Corridor has got everything needed," said Guo Wanda, executive vice-president of China (Shenzhen) Development Institute.

SOURCE Information Office of the People's Government of Guangdong Province