Guangzhou has made a good start in 2017 in the economic development and secured its 3rd position in China. Its 17Q1 GDP hit RMB469.2 billion, up 8.2%, higher than the national growth rate (6.9%) and the provincial growth rate (7.8%), continuously contributing to the great development of the province and China as well. Horizontally, Guangzhou’s GDP growth rate is higher than Beijing’s 6.9%, and Shanghai’s 6.8%.
The good start is mainly embodied in “two new heights, two first positions, two 30% and two 20%”: Guangzhou has created a new height in the same-period growth rate of industrial electricity consumption volume and railway cargo transportation volume in the five years, reaching 6% and 10.7%, respectively. The port container throughput grew by 11%, and the airport passenger traffic grew by 12.5%, ranking the first of the Top 10 ports and Top 6 airports of China in terms of the growth rate. Both the import and export index growth exceeded 30%, and the growth rate of total tax revenue and total industrial enterprise profits exceeded or reached nearly 20%.
Newly registered manufacturing enterprises increased by 92%
Economic structure strategic adjustment achieved effect
According to the “Guangzhou: A City Attractive to New Wealth” published on the latest issue of Fortune, Guangzhou is sparing no efforts in developing advanced manufacturing and strategic emerging industries, structuring a high-end, high-quality high-tech modern industrial system. This year Guangzhou’s industrial investment is predicted to reach RMB100 billion, and emerging industries will become an important breakthrough in the accumulation of new wealth in Guangzhou.
The industrial investment data, which reflects the independent economic growth impetus, can testify that in the new round of emerging industrial arrangement of the globe, Guangzhou is eye-catching and gains confidence in the market. In the first quarter, Guangzhou saw RMB11.5 billion of industrial investment, up 14.1% year-on-year, 4,269 newly registered manufacturing enterprises, a hike up to 92% year-on-year. Thanks to the flocking in of leading innovation enterprises in recent years and rising input in industrial technological reform, Guangzhou’s manufacturing has accelerated paces towards high-end and advanced level.
In 17Q1, Guangzhou enjoyed 12.6% growth of the high-tech product output value, or nearly 50% of the industry. The new products and new services of the emerging industries such as electronic manufacturing, automotive, industrial robot, and mobile communication base station equipment released strong driving effect. Leading enterprises’ leading force has been particularly obvious. Driven by the rolling out of new production lines of LGD and Jabil and other leading enterprises, the electronic manufacturing realized the output value of RMB53.9 billion, up 9.2% year-on-year. Driven by GAC Motor and other enterprises, Guangzhou realized a growth of 22.1% year-on-year in the output value of automotive industry to reach RMB112.9 billion, or 93.5% contribution to the industrial growth. Trumpchi, an independent brand of GAC, has continuously accelerated the model upgrade and improved the technological content, and achieved 77% growth in the output value in 17Q1, driving the automotive industry of Guangdong Province to grow by about 3 percentage points.
The statistics of the producer service industry also testified the good momentum of Guangzhou’s manufacturing towards the high end. As the engine of the new economic development, Guangzhou’s high-tech service industry has accelerated development: in the first quarter, software and information service industry, Internet and related services have enjoyed rapid growth. The interactive entertainment enterprises topped the whole industry in terms of the growth rate, and enterprise communications, big data, cloud computing and other new type businesses enjoyed rapid income growth. Guangzhou Branch of China Mobile saw a sharp growth of 192% year-on-year in the cloud computing business.
The product quality improvement from the supply side through technological innovation is finally reflected in enterprises’ revenue. From January to February, the total industrial profits grew by 19.4% year-on-year to RMB14.7 billion, 10.9 percentage points higher than the growth rate of previous year which was 8.5%. The losses of deficit enterprises declined by 16.8% year-on-year, further improving enterprises’ confidence. In March, PMI of Guangzhou’s key enterprises was 51.9%, jumping above the threshold again, higher than the national and provincial average. The sub-item indexes have also grown obviously.
High-level openness attracted high-end projects
Largest actual used foreign capital scale of Guangdong Province
Last month, BeiGene Biomedicine Project started construction in GE Biological Industrial Park of Huangpu District, which has a total investment of RMB2.2 billion. In cooperation with Fortune 500 corporation GE in technological innovation, “China’s Genentech” will produce the cutting-edge anti-cancer drugs. In the first quarter, Guangzhou saw establishment of 508 enterprises with foreign direct investment, up 40.3%, actually used foreign investment US$1.886 billion, ranking the first of Guangdong Province in terms of the scale.
“Import and export optimized” was further highlighted. Both the import and export growth rate exceeded 30%, reaching 33.2% and 31% respectively. The mechanical and electrical products export grew by 26.7%. Electric appliances and electronics and mechanical equipment became the “main force”: mechanical and electrical product import grew by 30.2%. The finished car import reached RMB180 million, up 58.7%, aircraft import RMB3.67 billion, an increase of 5.4 times.
Tokyo Promotion and Singapore Promotion of 2017 Fortune Global Forum were just concluded. The foreign media commented, “The reason that Guangzhou is favored by so many industrial giants and recognized by international institutions lies in its determination of building a hub type network city on the basis of the innovation positioning, its strong attraction and influence to high-end resources, and consequently the huge investment opportunities it has created.”
In the first quarter, 105 foreign-funded enterprises increased investment in Guangzhou, involving US$1.755 billion contracted foreign investment, nearly two times of increase, directly reflecting foreign investors’ confidence in Guangzhou. Driven by big projects, the contracted foreign investment of manufacturing reached US$3.884 billion, growing by 13 times. From the first half of 2016 to this day, Guangzhou has attracted about US$300 billion worth foreign investment contracts, mainly in the advanced manufacturing and strategic emerging industries.
Foxconn 10.5 Generation Display Project started construction officially on March 1, 2017, with the first phase investment worth RMB61 billion. When it reaches the designated capacity in 2017, it will generate the output value of RMB92 billion, and form a new type industrial cluster with the annual output value of more than RMB100 billion. A batch of high-end industrial projects have settled here, accelerating accumulation and concentration of innovation elements across the globe and consequently leading to the industrial project concentration.
The good momentum has continued in the second quarter. Cisco Guangzhou Smart City Project started construction on April 27. The project is located in the core area of Guangzhou International Technological Innovation City and will mainly develop smart manufacturing cloud, and provide cloud computing, smart medical service, smart transportation, smart logistics and data center and other applications for the ecosystem of the smart city. It aims at building a value innovation industrial park integrating “industry, university, research institute, commerce, and residence”, with the annual output value expected to exceed RMB100 billion.
Nansha is building a high-level opening up hub and creating a new “industry cradle”. Recently the overall development project of an area measuring 7.3 square kilometers in Mingzhu Bay Hengli Island will start construction, which has a total investment of RMB24.16 billion. In the first quarter this year, the number of market players has increased by more than 30% in Guangzhou, including 37 foreign-funded enterprises with registered capital exceeding US$10 million, an increase of one time year-on-year. So far 288 Fortune 500 corporations have invested nearly 800 projects in Guangzhou.
Construction of three strategic hubs achieved initial success
Port container throughput growth rate topped in China
In the first quarter, Guangzhou Port container throughput grew by 11%, and the airport passenger traffic grew by 12.5%, topping of the Top 10 ports and Top 6 airports of the Chinese mainland. Meanwhile, the railway cargo transportation volume increased by 10.7%, creating a new height in the same period of the recent five years. The transportation, warehousing and postal industry added value accounted for 7.6% of the regional GDP of Guangzhou, contributing more than 10% to Guangzhou’s GPD growth.
Obvious achievements have been made in the building of the international shipping, aviation and technological strategic hubs and Guangzhou’s hub type network city function is further reinforced. In 2016, Baiyun International Airport transported nearly 60 million passengers, surpassing Singapore Changi Airport. It has newly opened, resumed and intensified 27 international routes, opened more than 200 access points, including 85 international and regional points.
The sharp increase of throughput and expansion of routes are the results of the flocking in of aviation enterprises. Since last year Guangzhou has more than 4 newly increased aviation enterprises. Nearly 70 aviation enterprises have presence in Baiyun International Airport. Guangzhou Airport Economic Zone has become the new source of power and growth pole. Recently Guangzhou Port Co. Ltd. will be officially listed on the A-share main board. Guangzhou Port will vigorously foster and construct the trading market and distribution center, bonded zone and logistics base, and jointly build the “dry port” and march towards the international container hub.
The technological innovation corridor showed the trend of “booming emerging industries”. In Pazhou Internet Innovation Cluster, 11 enterprises, including Tencent and Ali, have started construction, with a total investment of more than RMB55 billion. Cisco Smart City has settled in Guangzhou International Innovation City, driving settlement of 10 strategic partners. Sino-Singapore (Guangzhou) Knowledge City has newly introduced and registered 49 enterprises while Guangzhou International Bio-Island newly introduced 16 projects.
The capital attracts “running water”. Guangzhou has structured a technological and financial service system, including the three platforms of technological investment guide, technological credit financing and capital market financing. It has issued facility letters to 529 enterprises and granted loans of RMB5.17 billion, ranking China’s first in terms of the scale. The “running water” has injected fuel for development of enterprises. In 2016, Guangzhou has 203 enterprises newly listed on the New Third Board, ranking the first of capital cities in terms of the number of newly listed enterprises and the total number of listed enterprises. In 2017, the number increased by 47, making the total number to 392.
The “public innovation and entrepreneurship” vitality has been further freed. The number of invention patent applications and granted patents increased by 37.7% and 34.9%, respectively. The newly registered market players increased by 36.8%, or an increase of 644 on average a day. In the first quarter, 260 key construction projects of Guangzhou completed investment of RMB22.4 billion in line with the working deployment, accumulating the new advantages of development of the central city of China.
