Opening-up and Innovation, Leading Guangzhou Developed into a City with the Most Investment Value

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GUANGZHOU, China, April 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 25th and 27th, Guangzhou will hold the Fortune Global Forum 2017 Symposium in Tokyo, Japan and Singapore respectively. Guangzhou will be sending invitations again, inviting guests from the world's top 500 enterprises to attend the Fortune Global Forum 2017, which will be held in Guangzhou this December. Predictably, with Japan and Singapore as Guangzhou's important partners in Asia, the symposiums will attract much attention.

As the birthplace of the Maritime Silk Road in the east, Guangzhou is engaged in economic and trade exchanges frequently with Asian countries along the Maritime Silk Road since ancient times. Opening-up and innovation, the lifeblood of Guangzhou, enabled the city's strong economic growth. Guangzhou is becoming one of the cities with the most investment value in the world.

For nearly three decades, Guangzhou has been the third largest city in China, following Shanghai and Beijing. In 2016, the city's Gross Domestic Product reached about 2 trillion yuan, equivalent to that of Singapore and neighboring Hong Kong. As the capital city of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou is at the core of the Pearl River Delta, one of the most dynamic economic areas in the world.

To reach the goal of "establishing open, loose and free innovative ecology", Guangzhou municipal government is increasing its fiscal spending on the innovation of science and technology, reaching 11 billion yuan in 2017. Besides, the city is improving its commercial environment, emphasizing on the rule of law, market-oriented system and international business-friendly environment.

According to the city's latest plan, it would become "the nation's innovation hub with global influence by 2020".

In fact, Guangzhou is one of the most business-friendly cities in China, topping the Forbes list in this category five times over the past six years.

To encourage the innovation of enterprises, Guangzhou is streamlining government administration and delegating power to the lower level of government. Last month, Foxconn Technology Group, the world's largest electronics contractor and a major supplier of Apple, began construction of a new panel factory in Guangzhou's Zengcheng District, with an investment of 61 billion yuan. It only takes 50 days from project negotiation to sign the contract, and 60 days from the contract signed to start the project, which is hailed as "China speed" by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

"It will not only be a panel processing factory, but a concept of building an ecological town featuring high-end technology in the city of Guangzhou," said Terry Gou, CEO and chairman of Foxconn Technology Group.

A favorable business environment attracts foreign investors enormously. According to the data from the Commerce Department of Guangzhou, newly established foreign-invested enterprises in 2016 reached 1757, with year-on-year growth of 23 percent. The actual use of foreign capital reached 5.7 billion US dollars, an increase of 5.3 percent compared to the same period last year.

In the study report Chinese Cities of Opportunity 2017, which is jointly published by PwC and China Development Research Foundation in March this year, Guangzhou ranked first for two consecutive years as the city with the most opportunities. Guangzhou's recognition by many industry giants and international organizations is rooted in the city's ambition for innovation and opening up, presenting a powerful attraction for high-end resources, and thus creates huge investment opportunities.