Guangdong in South China held its provincial high-quality development conference in Shenzhen on February 18, the first working day after the Chinese New Year holiday, emphasizing the combination of sci-tech innovation and industrial development.

It is the second year for Guangdong, the province with the largest GDP in China for 35 consecutive years, to host such a grand convention to rally the whole province's tremendous strength around its goals.

Huang Kunming, Party Secretary of Guangdong, emphasized the importance of sci-tech innovation, saying that Guangdong should take the path of high-quality development, seize the critical factor of sci-tech innovation, and encourage companies, industries and society to get involved.

Huang stressed that it is a strategic move and a long-term plan for Guangdong to advance industrial sci-tech innovation and develop new productivity boosters. He urged the whole province to strive to accelerate the construction of an industrial sci-tech innovation center with a global influence.

Huang declared that the province will encourage enterprises to use new technologies, equipment, materials and processes to improve product quality and production efficiency. Industrial transformation and upgrading should improve enterprise production technology, revitalize traditional industries, achieve the booming development of emerging industries, and foster future sectors.

Guangdong will launch a new batch of primary scientific research projects this year, promoting technology transformation for 9,000 industrial enterprises and facilitating digital transformation for 9,200 large industrial enterprises.

Wang Weizhong, Governor of Guangdong, encouraged companies to be deeply involved in the province's priority tasks, such as the high-quality development projects for counties, towns and villages. He also encouraged scholars from technological and education sectors to give out more sci-tech outcomes and cultivate more talents who are good at innovation. Wang indicated that Guangdong would continue to establish a market-oriented, law-ruled and international business environment, creating better conditions for various business entities and talents.

Ai Xuefeng, director of Guangdong Provincial Development Reform Commission, said that this year, Guangdong would plan 1,508 provincial critical projects with an annual investment of 1 trillion yuan, including more than 370 projects covering four major industries, namely, new-generation information technology, biology, high-end equipment manufacturing and new materials, with an annual investment of about 150 billion yuan.

Zhu Kongjun, director of the Department of Education of Guangdong Province, revealed that this year, Guangdong will strive to add about ten national and provincial innovation platforms and transform over 2,000 innovation achievements. The province will promote the establishment of the City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) and attract more world-class educational resources and innovative elements.

Top scholars and business representatives gave presentations at the conference, sharing their experiences and feelings about Guangdong's yearly efforts for high-quality development and elaborating on their plans for this year.

"Over the past year, I felt the joy of starting a business like never before and the sense of accomplishment that my dream comes true. The honeymoon that I had in Shenzhen has turned into a honey year, which is developing into a honey life," said Yan Ning, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of Shenzhen Bay Laboratory.

Wen GAO, director of Pengcheng Laboratory and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told GDToday that he hopes to build a highland of computing power, which would be an important support for the research on how to make good use of green power and to make computing power more sustainable.

"In 2023, one out of every four new energy vehicles in the country were made in Guangdong. In the future, this proportion will continue to increase. As Chinese brands go global, BYD's first ro-ro ship has made its maiden voyage, and seven more ro-ro ships will be put into operation in the next two years," said Wang Chuanfu, president & CEO at BYD Co., Ltd.

"When ExxonMobil decided to invest more than US$ 10 billion in a world-scale chemical complex, we quickly realized that Guangdong province was the right choice because of its professional and efficient government, its well-developed infrastructure, its business-friendly environment, and its rich pool of highly skilled local workforce," said Jean-Marc Taton, chairman of ExxonMobil China.

Representatives, including heads of provincial government departments and domestic and foreign-funded enterprises, attended the conference in Shenzhen.