“China is pushing opening up wider” and “Guangzhou exemplifies the achievements of reform and opening up” were the comments of participants from world renowned business media and “think tanks” in the political, academic and business community gathering at the Huangpu International Business Media and Think Tank Forum, held from November 1st to 3rd by the Publicity Department of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
“It’s no coincidence that we are now discussing China’s reform and opening-up here today,” said former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin in his speech. In just 40 years, China has gained tremendous influence worldwide while Guangzhou, in many ways, demonstrates how the country has evolved.
Over the past four decades, Guangzhou has a GDP about 500 times larger and its per capita GDP is close to the level of the developed world. All these achievements have been attributed to opening-up, “a grand, overall and practical strategy aiming to connect China to the world” in Mr. de Villepin’s words.
“The world can see Guangzhou, the frontier of reform and opening up, as a window for China’s achievements,” said Wen Guohui, mayor of Guangzhou. The total trade value of the city soared from USD 130 million in 1978 to USD 143.23 billion in 2017.
With more than 120 editions held, the Canton Fair has incessantly strengthened trading relations between China and the rest of the world, consolidating the position of Guangzhou as the southern gate of China. As the window for the country’s opening up, cooperation and growth of foreign trade, the biannual event best testifies to the trajectory of how China has connected to the world through reform and opening up, said Li Jinqi, the Director General of China Foreign Trade Center, Ministry of Commerce.
Today, Guangzhou has been a frontrunner in promoting private economy and export-oriented economy — a success resulted from the city’s exploration of an innovation-driven economy, improved services and enhanced efficiency, according to participating experts.
How long does it take to establish a company in Guangzhou? One day, responded the source with Guangzhou’s Huangpu District/ Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development District (GETDD), the forum’s host. The highly efficient services for entrepreneurs are attributed to reform and innovation.
“What astonishes me most concerning the innovation here is that it is powered by a real and dynamic ecosystem with strong executive capacity,” said Emmanuel Daniel, founder and president of The Asian Banker Journal, “Entrepreneurs can obtain a higher level of happiness at a lower cost.”
“Guangzhou enjoys much experience and legacy, economically and culturally. To attract outstanding talents and families from across the world requires an environment which champions a variety of lifestyles and business models, exactly what Guangzhou has to offer,” said Xiao Geng, president of the Hong Kong Institution for International Finance and professor of financial practice at Peking University HSBC Business School.
To further push forward reform and opening-up needs to be in accordance with international standards. In recent years Guangzhou has been making some useful attempt in advancing the supply-side restructuring, transforming and upgrading production modes. The focus has been on growing major industries, such as IAB (next-generation information technology, artificial technology and biomedicine) and NEM (new energy and materials). All these help the city move up the global value chain.
It takes merely a decade for Mino Automotive Equipment Company, based in GETDD to grow from a start-up into a world-leading advanced equipment firm. “We once delivered a production line within 128 days, a year earlier than six foreign counterparts, which was a miracle. Innovation is being made in manufacturing our equipment in terms of reliability, cost and maintenance,” said Yao Weibing, Mino’s president.
“The core of high-quality development is industrial technology innovation,” says this year’s Huangpu Forum. Guangzhou, being the forerunner historically and with international exchange platforms, will continue to assume the role of explorers and pioneers in Chinese propositions of “fostering a new environment in all-round opening up and incessantly promoting high-quality development”.
“In a new climate, going global and bringing in are two dimensions of opening up. Some pillar industries have a need to expand overseas in ways to increase international cooperation in capacity and economic globalization. This is how multilateral trade relations, characterized by openness, equality, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, are forged,” said Zhang Jin, founder and president of Cedar Holdings, a Guangzhou-based Fortune Global 500 company.
“Guangzhou, as the frontier of reform and opening up, has many aspects, such as philosophy, thinking, policy and talents that resonate with us,” noted Peng Wei, president of Carl Zeiss (China) Co., Ltd. As of now, the group has six enterprises registered with Huangpu District.
In just three weeks, the Fortune Brainstorm TECH International Conference will take place in Guangzhou, its permanent host. Clifton Leaf, the editor in chief at Fortune magazine addressed at the forum that, investment of Chinese companies in research and development had grown by 34% over the past few years, compared to a modest 8% for North American firms. This means the Chinese enterprises will have great development vitality and be highly adaptable to changing conditions.
The construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is underway, and attracts worldwide attention. According to Mr. de Villepin, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, which began operation recently, will increase the integration of and win-win cooperation for cities within the Greater Bay Area, including Guangzhou.
Guangzhou, a vital engine driving the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area forward, is seeking high-quality development through innovation while embracing the world with a more open stance. Amid a new round of global revolution of technological innovation, new forms of business are shooting up to an extent unseen before, thus shaping a new modern industrial system. With that, Guangzhou will have a more important role to play as it evolves from a millennial-old business city to an innovative metropolis.
“In the context of globalization, China will most likely be a frontrunner, relying on innovation,” said Harley Seyedin, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in South China and president of Allelon Energy Partners. He believes that “We are now seeing a lot of revolutionary technologies in China, which may come from universities, pharmaceuticals and other industries. Technological innovation has dramatically changed the lives of Chinese society. China is actually leading a cashless world, which relies on smart phones and mobile payment that is born in Guangzhou, in all kinds of transactions.”
Source: The Publicity Department of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee
