Guangzhou: An Important Hub of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road

In February of this year, the State Council officially approved Guangzhou's positioning as a cutting-edge city, which is the capital of Guangdong Province, a national historical and cultural city, an important central city in China, an international commercial center, and a comprehensive transportation hub. In the future, Guangzhou will strengthen its deep cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao, becoming an important hub of the 21st century Maritime Silk Road. The Nansha area of the Guangdong Free Trade Zone will be built into a demonstration zone for deep cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao.

Around the goal of building an important central city, Guangzhou's three major international "hubs" will support the future of the "center".

The "International Shipping Hub" of Nansha New Area sets sail

Nansha New Area, located at the southern end of the Pearl River, is the only access to the sea for Guangzhou and the geographical center and hub of the Greater the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration. On April 21st last year, Nansha New Area, together with Shenzhen Qianhai and Zhuhai Hengqin, welcomed the official establishment of China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone. Aiming at the international shipping hub, Nansha New Area sets sail.

"I love Nansha, just like sharks love the sea and eagles love the sky." The former "Coal Boss" and Shanxi Jincheng resident Long Xuesong have registered 34 companies (associations) in Nansha New Area, including cross-border product display, parallel imported cars, shipping and financial leasing, and built a "Big Mac" platform called "Egret Headquarters". As of April 20th this year, 10802 new enterprises have been established in Nansha New Area, with an additional registered capital of 111.3 billion yuan. 50 Fortune Global 500 companies have successively settled in, and industries such as shipping logistics, innovative finance, financing leasing, and cross-border e-commerce are gradually forming a gathering trend.

In promoting investment facilitation and customs trade facilitation, multiple "Nansha models" have emerged: the "Joint Handling of Eleven Certificates and Three Chapters", the pioneering government purchase inspection services, the pioneering customs rapid inspection and release mechanism, the pioneering "Smart Inspection Port", and the launch of the 2.0 version of the professional international trade "Single Window"

Building an international shipping center and expanding and strengthening ports are key. In just one year, the completion of six 100000 ton container berths at the third phase terminal of Nansha Port Area has enabled it to berth container ships with larger tonnage in the world; 28 inland dry ports have been built, and the total number of international liner routes has reached 74; The construction of cruise home ports has been launched, and routes between Hong Kong, Sanya, Danang, and Miyako Island have been opened successively. In 2015, the container throughput of Nansha Port reached 11.77 million TEUs, ranking twelfth in the world. At the same time, the shipbuilding industry in Nansha New Area also has broad prospects. During the 13th Five Year Plan period, China Shipbuilding Corporation will invest 15 billion yuan to build a marine equipment industry base in Longxue, Nansha, with Guangzhou as the base, further radiating to the Beibu Gulf and Southeast Asia.

Baiyun is about to emerge as an international aviation hub

Seafood caught from Australia can be transported to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport within 36 hours. After passing customs, border inspection, and quarantine, it can be delivered to the seafood market around Guangzhou citizens within 12 hours. The Baiyun Airport Comprehensive Bonded Zone is a large-scale airport type comprehensive bonded zone in China. Currently, more than 260 enterprises of various types have settled in it, covering industries such as bonded logistics warehousing and distribution, cross-border e-commerce, processing, and customs declaration agency.

"To participate in international competition, Guangzhou must gather high-end elements in the global industrial chain, innovation chain, and value chain. The international aviation hub is an important resource, platform, and carrier for building a central city," said Ren Xuefeng, member of the Standing Committee of the Guangzhou Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee.

The routes are becoming increasingly dense, and logistics are becoming more developed!

At 7:30 am on May 7th, a Finnish Airlines passenger plane departing from Helsinki successfully arrived at Baiyun Airport. There are currently 72 airlines operating at Baiyun Airport, including 47 foreign airlines; There are over 270 air routes opened, including over 100 international routes and over 70 international navigation points. The construction of Terminal 2 of the airport and its supporting projects are being accelerated. In addition, China Southern Airlines Group, headquartered in Guangzhou, has a capacity of 180 aircraft in Guangzhou, with up to 141 global navigation points connected by Guangzhou. China Eastern Airlines Guangdong Branch has also successfully settled in Baiyun, with a planned operation of 30 aircraft during the 13th Five Year Plan period.

In January of this year, the "Guangzhou Airport Economic Zone Management Measures" were issued, and the 116 square kilometers of Baiyun District were designated as the Airport Economic Zone Development Zone. In the future, the Airport Economic Zone will accelerate the development of aviation industry clusters, with the first promotion of projects such as the China Australia New Korea Free Trade Industrial Park, the Guangzhou Airport Cross border E-commerce Cluster, and the Precious Goods Distribution and Trading Center. At present, projects such as FedEx Asia Pacific Transfer Center, Postal Express South China Processing Center, and R&F Logistics have successively settled in, and the annual international freight processing capacity of Baiyun Airport will also increase by 1.5 million tons. "In the future, airports can achieve 20 minutes of direct access to the central urban area and 1 hour of coverage in the Pearl River Delta, greatly enhancing regional radiation," said Sun Xiuqing, Director of Guangzhou Airport Management Committee.

Air travel is faster, and ground transportation is not inferior. At present, Guangzhou is planning to build railways in eight directions, including Hainan, Shaanxi, Guangxi, Yunnan (Southeast Asia), Beijing, Shanghai, Macau, Hong Kong, and 11 subway lines totaling 303 kilometers, on the basis of existing 9 and 13 railways, high-speed railways, and intercity tracks. At that time, with Guangzhou as the center, a strategic corridor will be built that connects the eastern and northwestern parts of Guangdong, the Beibu Gulf, the southwestern region, the southeastern region, the Yangtze River Delta, and other directions.

Yangcheng's "International Science and Technology Innovation Hub" Sings High

In the vast welding and assembly workshop, rows of intelligent machine arms sway and sway, and intelligent rail cars move or stop, or load or unload... On April 18th, the GAC Fiat factory with an annual production of 160000 Jeep Freedom Xia vehicles was officially put into operation, with a research and development cost of 1.08 billion yuan and the GAC Trumpchi GA8 representing a higher level of car manufacturing in China being taken offline.

"Against the backdrop of global overcapacity in the automotive industry, we rely on independent innovation, resulting in less than four models selling well each year. All models in the series have received the C-NCAP Safety Collision Five Evaluation from the China Automotive Technology Center, and core technologies such as major components, vehicle control, and new energy are all in our hands," said Wu Song, General Manager of GAC Passenger Car Co., Ltd. with pride. As a pillar industry in the city, Guangzhou Automobile is expected to contribute 500 billion yuan in output value this year.

Traditional industries are rejuvenated, and emerging formats are developing vigorously. In 2015, the total number of cross-border e-commerce enterprises in Guangzhou reached 879, with a total import and export volume of 6.85 billion yuan, ranking among the most well-known on the entire network. The Tianhe-2 supercomputer, located in Guangzhou University City, has achieved six consecutive global fastest computing speeds and provides typical application services to over 660 users. The industrial robot and intelligent equipment industry in the city has gathered more than 20 production, research and development, and integrated application enterprises, with an output value of nearly 40 billion yuan. Shangpin Home Furnishings, Sofia, Europa, Coolman Ju, and others have grown into benchmarks in the national custom furniture industry.

"This year, the total amount of funds allocated by the government for scientific and technological innovation in the entire region will reach 1 billion yuan, doubling from last year." Chen Zhiying, member of the Standing Committee of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee, Secretary of the Party Working Committee of the Guangzhou Development Zone, and Secretary of the Huangpu District Party Committee, stated that the Guangzhou Development Zone (Huangpu District) will be the main engine for building an international scientific and technological innovation hub in Guangzhou and the core area of the Pearl River Delta independent innovation demonstration zone. At present, the Guangzhou Development Zone (Huangpu District), with an area of less than 500 square kilometers, has four innovative development platforms: China Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City, Guangzhou Science City, Guangzhou International Biological Island, and Huangpu Lingang Economic Zone. Pazhou Internet Innovation Cluster, which is close to the Canton Fair, has also sprung up. It has successfully introduced Tencent, Alibaba, Xiaomi Technology and other leading Internet enterprises. On May 27th, the 2016 China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Achievement Exchange Conference opened, showcasing over 1700 innovation and entrepreneurship achievement projects. To encourage mass entrepreneurship and innovation, the China Association for Science and Technology has decided to settle in Guangzhou for a long time and hold one session annually.

The construction of a central city cannot do without a high-quality talent team. At the beginning of the year, we launched a strong innovation and entrepreneurship leadership talent support plan, believing that entrepreneurship, innovation, and development are in Guangzhou. For the future, Guangzhou Mayor Wen Guohui is full of confidence.