Guangzhou: Key to Understand China's High-quality Development

GUANGZHOU,China,April 20,2023 -- The opening ceremony of "Understanding China - GBA Dialogue" was held on April19 with the theme of "Chinese Modernization and New Opportunities for theWorld",aiming to help the world gain a better understanding of China and toprovide a leg-up to the high-quality development of the Guangdong province andthe Greater Bay Area (GBA) as a whole.

"Achieving self-reliance in science and technology is the key to Chinesemodernization."

As the host city of the Dialogue and the central city of the GBA,Guangzhou isan important pillar in promoting self-reliance and self-improvement in scienceand technology innovation in the GBA and across China.

Through the in-depth implementation of the innovation-driven developmentstrategy in recent years,Guangzhou has witnessed major changes in the overalllandscape of its scientific and technological strength,climbing the globalinnovation ladder as the tenth in the Nature Index 2022 Science Cities and withthe "Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong" science and technology cluster rankingsecond for three consecutive years in the Global Innovation Index; the city hasalso rendered major breakthroughs in strategic technologies with the listingand operation of national strategic science and technology platforms such asthe Guangzhou Laboratory and the GBA National Technology Innovation Center.Guangzhou is flexing its muscles in front of the world with its robustinnovation capacity and booming industrial vitality.

At the same time,Guangzhou is fully leveraging the supporting and leading roleof technological innovation in the high-quality development of mega cities,tostrengthen the cultivation of enterprise innovation entities,and tocontinuously strengthen and expand the technology enterprise matrix. Among the145 domestic listed companies in the city,108 are high-tech enterprises,accounting for 75%. A level-based technology enterprise cultivation system hasbeen initially formed with high-tech enterprises as the major stakeholder andtechnology-based SMEs as the backup force.

At present,Guangzhou has pressed the acceleration button on a series ofindependent landmark and leading scientific and technological projects,building a strong momentum for achieving high-quality development. As thepermanent site of the GBA Science Forum,the city is home to China's first fullindustrial chain commercial aerospace industrialization base,the cold springecosystem,the national engineering research center for natural gas hydrateexploration and development,hyper-sonic wind tunnels,and the extreme marineenvironmental research facility with its preliminary work underway.

"Chinese modernization should not follow the path that leads to the realeconomy being sidelined and must accelerate the construction of a modernindustrial system underlined by it."

For many global guests who have participated in this year's event,the420-square-meter "Baiyun Heart",an ultra high-definition large screen on thehighway from Baiyun Airport to downtown Guangzhou,has become a new window forthem to observe the development of the city. This screen is not only anembodiment of Guangzhou's technological advantages in this industry,but isalso a strong testimony to Guangzhou's adherence to the principle of"manufacturing as the fulcrum" and its focus on developing the real economy.

The focus of high-quality development lies in the manufacturing industry.Despite complex situations and severe challenges in recent years,Guangzhou hasalways regarded the manufacturing industry as the core driving force foreconomic development.

"China's reform and opening-up policy will remain unchanged over the long termand will never close its door to the world."

With a series of events in this year's Dialogue such as round-tables forbusiness leaders,special session on new opportunities of Chinese modernizationand high-quality development in the GBA,business tours and immersiveexperience of the Chinese culture for foreign enterprise executives,Guangzhouhas devoted all its efforts to building a remarkable platform for the world to"understand China",serving as an important window for the world to observeChina and to showcase our achievements in reform and opening up.

Guangdong is the vanguard,pioneer and experimental area of reform and openingup,and plays an important and prominent role in the overall process of Chinesemodernization. Taking the lead in opening- up,Guangzhou has been grantedimportant status as a national central city and a core hub for the developmentof the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. In the tide of reform andopening-up in the new era,Guangzhou is continuing to actively promote thedevelopment of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Nanshadistrict of Guangzhou to deepen the comprehensive cooperation betweenGuangdong,Hong Kong and Macao facing the world.

From the Canton Fair to the Understanding China - GBA Dialogue,Guangzhou isactively accelerating the construction of an international exchange centerthrough a series of international activities and conferences.