Published : 2024-05-31
What needs to be done for the construction of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) in South China?
The outline document for the construction of the GBA, Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (the Development Plan), mentions seven major tasks.
This series of articles take a look at the achievements in each of these seven areas, with this article focusing on how the GBA build a modern industrial system with international competitiveness at seven locations.
Industry in GBA｜Midea Lighthouse Factory
In the Shunde factory of Midea's Kitchen & Water Heater Business Division, located within the Shunde Park of Foshan High-tech Zone, automated guided vehicles and robotic arms navigate the workshop, executing tasks according to intelligent instructions.
This facility is Asia's largest dishwasher production base, with an annual output of 7 million units distributed across 145 countries and regions worldwide.
By leveraging advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and digital solutions, the plant has completed its digital transformation. Its production lines can manufacture a dishwasher in as little as 18 seconds, reducing unit production costs by 14% and cutting export delivery lead times by 58%, significantly boosting production capacity.
The transformation and upgrading of Midea’s plant—and, more broadly, of Foshan's manufacturing sector—is regarded as a microcosm of the advanced manufacturing development taking place in the GBA.
The Development Plan proposes "promoting the in-depth integration of the internet, big data, artificial intelligence with the real economy, vigorously advancing the transformation, upgrading and optimised development of manufacturing…, and building an advanced manufacturing base with international competitiveness."
In 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a list of 45 national-level advanced manufacturing clusters. Seven of these clusters are located in the GBA, including the "Guangzhou-Foshan-Huizhou Ultra-High-Definition Video and Smart Home Appliance Cluster."
Read more: GBA at a Glance｜Understand Foshan in 5 figures
Industry in GBA｜Hengqin Guangdong-Macao TCM Sci-Tech Industrial Park
The Hengqin Guangdong-Macao Cooperation Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Science and Technology Industrial Park, located in the Hengqin Guangdong-Macao Deep Cooperation Zone is a base equipped with EU-certified GMP standards for TCM testing, production, R&D, and inspection, as well as industrial incubation.
It is also recognised as a "National Science and Technology Business Incubator," a "Public Service Platform for Overseas Registration of TCM Products (Hengqin)," and one of the first batch of "National TCM Service Export Bases."
Over the years, the industrial park has been continuously developing advanced traditional Chinese medicine technology, and the "scientific quantitative dosage formulation technology" is one of them.
This technology has reached the standard quantification of traditional Chinese medicine, and it only takes two minutes for an intelligent dispense robot to complete a prescription, and three seconds to make a cup of Chinese medicine.
The Development Plan mentions the pursue of ten pillar industries, including the new generation of information technology, biotechnology, high-end equipment manufacturing, modern traditional Chinese medicine, etc.
As of the end of March 2024, 220 companies have registered in the industrial park, covering fields such as traditional Chinese medicine, cosmetics, health products, medical devices, biomedicine, medical services, etc.
Industry in GBA｜Shenshan BYD Auto Industrial Park
The BYD Auto Industrial Park, located in Honghai Avenue in the Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone, specialises in the production of new energy vehicles.
BYD took 13 years to complete the first one million new energy vehicles production (from 2008 to 2021), but for the completion of the 6 millionth (in 2023) vehicles and the 7 millionth (early in 2024), it took only 4 months.
It marks an amazing production speed. In 2023, BYD even surpassed Tesla with more than 3 million sales and become the world's dominant new energy vehicle company.
The Development Plan proposes to build a number of emerging industry clusters with complete industrial chains, strong radiation driving force, and international competitiveness, enhance the new momentum of economic development, and put forward ten strategic emerging industries.
The "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Strategic Emerging Industries Annual Development Report (2023)", jointly released by the Guangzhou Industrial Development Research Institute and the 21st Century Business Herald, indicates that in 2022, the proportion of strategic emerging industries in the GDP of Shenzhen and Guangzhou reached 40% and 30% respectively.
The ten key strategic emerging industrial clusters being cultivated in Guangdong province maintained a rapid development trend.
The report states that the new energy vehicle and autonomous driving sectors have established a relatively comprehensive layout. Key enterprises, besides BYD, include GAC Group, XPeng Motors, and Dongfeng Venucia.
Read more: 7 Tasks of GBA｜Path of innovation in Greater Bay Area (Part Ⅰ)
Industry in GBA｜Huawei Shenzhen Base
Huawei's Bantian base, located in Bantian Street, Longgang District, Shenzhen, is the current headquarters of Huawei.
The Development Plan proposes "to build a world-class advanced manufacturing industry cluster with global influence and competitiveness in the electronic information field on the east bank of the Pearl River, with Shenzhen and Dongguan as the core."
Huawei, which is headquartered in Shenzhen, is one of the leading companies in the GBA's electronic information industry cluster. Its total revenue in 2023 exceeded 700 billion RMB, with a net profit of 87 billion RMB, an increase of 1.5 times compared to 2022.
OPPO and VIVO, both headquartered in Dongguan, are also among the leading companies in the field of mobile phone manufacturing. In 2023, their company values reached 143 billion and 140 billion RMB respectively.
International Data Corporation (IDC) data points out that in the first quarter of 2024, the market shares of China's top five smartphone manufacturers: Huawei ranked first, OPPO third, and VIVO fifth, with market shares of 17%, 15.7%, and 15.6% respectively.
It is noted that nearly half of the national market share is occupied by the three major phone manufacturers in the GBA.
In the past five years, the GBA has been developing a lot of great strategic industrial clusters with huge company values. They include 8 over RMB one trillion level, 3 from RMB 500 billion to one trillion level, 7 from RMB 100 billion to 500 billion, and 2 RMB tens of billions. They are in the fields of new generation of electronic information, green petrochemical, smart home appliances, cars and others.
