Guangzhou aims for quality, innovation to reshape industries

Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, plans to promote quality improvement, brand building and enterprise cultivation to create well-known big brands, competitive and influential large enterprises and large industrial clusters with distinctive advantages, according to a senior government official.

"Striving for quality and moving towards innovation is the key to reshaping Guangzhou's industrial advantages," said Sun Zhiyang, mayor of Guangzhou, while delivering a government work report to the local annual legislative meeting on Thursday.

The city's regional GDP grew steadily by 2.1 percent year-on-year to 3.1 trillion yuan ($426.7 billion) in 2024, according to the government work report.

Guangzhou plans to accelerate the growth of six emerging pillar industries, vigorously cultivate five strategic leading industries and strengthen and optimize four industries with characteristic advantages.

Guangzhou built its first 12-inch intelligent sensor wafer manufacturing line in 2024, with the production of integrated circuit wafers, analog chips and service robots increasing by 68.9 percent, 23.7 percent and 22 percent, respectively.

The number of unicorn companies based in Guangzhou has increased to 24, ranking ninth among global cities. Additionally, the city's production of drones and LCD screens has increased by 2.9 times and 2.3 times, respectively, according to the government work report.

"We must vigorously promote the electrification, intelligence and internationalization transformation of the automotive industry and continuously optimize the ecology of the industry," said Sun.