Brief introduction of Foshan National Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone

Brief introduction of Foshan National Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone

Foshan High-tech Zone, a national high-tech zone established with the approval of the State Council in 1992, implements the management system of “one zone with five parks, unified planning, separated park managements, and innovative services”. After a 26-year development and construction, it has become the main engine of Foshan’s scientific and technological innovation and industrial upgrade. It’s the main park of the Pearl River Delta National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone, the main carrier of Guangdong-Guangxi-Guizhou High-speed Railway Economic Belt Cooperation Experimental Zone (Guangdong Park), a national innovative featured park, a national intellectual property pilot park, Guangdong Comprehensive Experimental Zone of the Innovative Integration of Finance, Science, Technology and Industry, and the innovation base of equipment manufacturing industry in the western Pearl River area. In 2018, the regional GDP of Foshan High-tech Zone reached 156.328 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 7.51%; the total industrial output value was 480.93 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 8.73%; and the tax revenue has increased by 9%, reaching 21.029 billion yuan. In 2017, the dental medical device was approved for a pilot project of national innovative industrial cluster, and China (Guangdong) Robotics Innovation Center won the 2017 “Impact China” Intelligent Manufacturing Award and was rated as one of the “Top 10 Valuable Parks for Investment and Business”. The innovation and start-up business carriers oriented by high-end talents of Foshan High-tech Zone have obtained the central government’s special financial support. According to the latest report of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Foshan High-tech Zone has moved to the 25th place in the national comprehensive ranking.

The location advantage is outstanding. Foshan High-tech Zone, located in the core circle of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area,stands at the forefront of the Guangdong-Guangxi-Guizhou High-speed Railway Economic Belt. Foshan West Railway Station, officially opened in August, 2017, has realized rapid interconnection with major cities in China, such as 20 minutes to the central areas of Guangzhou, 45 minutes to Futian, Shenzhen, 1 hour to Zhuhai, 3 and a half hours to Nanning, 5 hours to Guiyang, 8 and a half hours to Kunming, and 50 minutes direct to West Kowloon, Hong Kong after the completion of Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High-speed Railway. In fact, Foshan and Guangzhou have already achieved the seamless co-urbanization. It only takes a 40-minute drive from Foshan High-tech Zone to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, which enables us to arrive at almost all large and medium-sized cities in China and major cities in Southeast Asian countries within a 5-hour flight.

The industrial system isimpeccable. Foshan High-tech Zone, composed of real economy and private economy with a full range of categories, has formed automotive equipment manufacturing, high-end equipment manufacturing, “3 hundred billion” optoelectronics and new materials, intelligent home furnishing, “30 billion” biological medicine and other industrial clusters, emerging industrial robots, unmanned aerial vehicles, 3D printing, intelligent home appliances and other new industries and business formats, which have developed into an important advanced manufacturing base in China. It gathers 96 world’s top 500 investment enterprises, 76 listed companies and new third board listed enterprises, and 1,512 high-tech enterprises. The industrial cooperation and agglomeration level is high and the cooperation among the upper, middle and lower industry is strong, with the industrial matching rate of major industry exceeding 80% locally. The private economy is developed and enterprises are well-rooted, gathering FAW-Volkswagen, Honda Automotive Parts, Wision Furniture, Dongfang Precision, Innolux, NATIONSTAR, Haitian, Agalia Tech and other influential leading enterprises.

The scientific and technological innovation is prominent. It highlights the leading demonstration and radiation-driven role of the Pearl River Delta National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone to follow and surpass the first-class standard. It vigorously implements the strategy of “close to universities, institutions and talents”, strengthens cooperation with famous universities such as Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Tsinghua University, actively docks with national defense and military resources such as China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, which has successfully introduced and gathered a batch of new development institutions and major innovation platforms such as China Academy of Invention Achievement Transformation, China (Guangodng) Robotics Innovation Center, Guangdong Technology University CNC Equipment Cooperative Innovation Institute, Foshan Institute of Intelligent Equipment Technology, Guangdong 3D Printing Application Technology Innovation Center, Guangdong National Defense Science, Technology and Industry Industrialization, Application and Promotion Center, Foshan Innovation Center of China Academy of Space Technology, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences (Nanhai) Translational Medicine Center, Foshan Anjie Health Industrial Park Project, Aerospace Productivity Promotion Center (Sanshui Workstation), PNP-Sanshui Industrial Park Science and Technology Innovation Center, and Foshan Doctoral Innovation Dream Factory. Among them, the robotic agglomeration effect is outstanding with the settlement of 4 major domestic robot production enterprises: EFORT Robot, ESTUN Robot, Huashu Robot, and Harbin Institute of Technology. The intellectual property protection has been gradually strengthened with the good operation of China (Foshan) Intellectual Property Protection Center and the steady promotion of the construction of Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court-Foshan Circuit Court. In 2018, the number of patent applications in the park was 9,748, with a year-on-year increase of 28.45%; the number of approved patents was 6,219, with a year-on-year increase of 23.76%. The innovation and start-up business atmosphere is strong, with 11 universities including Nanhai Campus of South China Normal University, North Campus of Foshan University, and Neusoft Institute Guangdong, gathering intelligent resources of 80,000 teachers and students; 14 national incubators, 13 national makerspace, 307 provincial engineering and technology research centers, 104 provincial enterprise technology centers, more than 1,5000 entrepreneurial teams, together with 48 postdoctoral research stations, become a hotspot for innovation and star-up business in the Pearl River Delta.

Extend the opening-up to the world. Foshan High-tech Zone hasinitially formed an open development structure based on the cooperation between Guangzhou and Foshan and among Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, with the extension of global international cooperation. As the core zone of Guangdong-Guangxi-Guizhou High-speed Railway Economic Belt Cooperation Experimental Zone (Guangdong Park), it has successfully held the 1st and 4th Joint Conference of Guangdong-Guangxi-Guizhou High-speed Railway Economic Belt Cooperation, the Promotion Conference of Private Investment in Guangdong-Guangxi-Guizhou High-speed Railway Economic Belt, etc., officially established friendly high-tech zone relationship with Guiyang, Nanning, Liuzhou, Zhaoqing, Yingkou, Changde, Yan’an, Shuangyashan and other high-tech zones. As an important member of the innovative “1+1+7” pattern in the Pearl River Delta, Foshan High-tech Zone actively promotes scientific and technological industrial cooperation with Guangzhou and Shenzhen to comprehensively dock with technology, talents and other high-quality resources, actively promotes integrated cooperation of investment and intelligence based on the Overseas Innovation Center of Foshan High-tech Zone, North American and British Commercial Liaison Offices of Shenzhen Tsinghua International Technology Transfer Center, Liaison Office of Taiwan Tunghai University, etc., enhances the cooperation with America, Israel, Canada, Germany and other developed countries or regions to accelerate the construction of Sino-Germany (Foshan) Industrial Park, Sino-European Scientific and Technological Cooperation Industrial Park and other international carrier platforms, and has successfully held the 6th China Innovation and Start-up Business Competition (Guangdong Area), the “Lion Dance Cup” International Industrial Design Competition, the 19th “Meeting Israel” 2018 Sino-Israel Cross-border Investment Conference, the 7th Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan Competition of China Innovation and Start-up Business Competition, the 2018 China (Foshan) Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Manufacturing International Conference and other domestic and international high-end competitions to further connect with global innovation and start-up business resources.

The policy system is well-organized. Foshan High-tech Zone insists on taking enterprise innovation and talent innovation as the main body, and has launched valuable development support policies to create a first-class business environment by starting with the top-level design. In terms of industrial support, it has combined with its own situation to launch the Semiconductor Industrial Innovation and Start-up Business Project and formulated policies for the agglomeration and innovation development of new pharmaceutical industry, the development of automotive industry chain, and the support of gazelle and single champion of manufacturing enterprises. In terms of scientific and technological innovation, it has introduced major scientific and technological innovation projects, intelligent manufacture upgrading projects, industrial robot application research projects and other policies. In terms of supporting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, it has launched policies such as the Foshan High-tech Zone-Chinese Academy of Sciences Cooperation Funds. For talent introduction and cultivation, policies such as talent team innovation and start-up business project and Tsinghua alumni start-up business project have been introduced.

The service quality is excellent. Foshan High-tech Zone has insisted on creating a first-class business environment to fully implement “Several Policies and Measures for the Cost Reduction of Manufacturing Enterprises and the Support for the Real Economy Development in Guangdong Province” and “Several Policies and Measures for the Cost Reduction of Manufacturing Enterprises and the Support for the Real Economy Development in Foshan”, and strengthen the reform of “simplifying administrative procedures, integrating simplification and supervision, and optimizing services”. It has implemented “one-door” service to realize “one-stop completion of three-level censorship and approval”; launched the joint censorship and approval reform of investment and construction projects to shorten the approval time by 66.6%; re-upgraded high-quality services by launching new measures of “joint transaction of business license and permit” and promoting the new pattern of founding enterprises through “one-window acceptance, internal circulation, simultaneous censorship and approval, and unified certification”. As the sole pilot zone in Foshan, it has officially started the reform of “separating licenses and permits”, involving 126 administrative approved projects to lead “simplified administration” through “license reduction”. Meanwhile, major enterprises were provided “one-to-one” services to ensure the efficient and high-quality services.

Never forget the initial ambition and forge forwards. Standing at a new starting point,Foshan High-tech Zone will hold the torch banner high, strive to join the top 20 national high-tech zones, strongly promote the construction of national innovative featured parks, build a provincial intelligent manufacturing center and innovation center in the western bank area of Pearl River, comprehensively enhance the capability of knowledge creation and technological innovation, industrial upgrade and structural optimization, internationalization and participation in global competition, and the sustainable development of the high-tech zone, provide a strong driving force for Foshan to build a national manufacturing innovation center, make positive contributions to Guangdong’s implementation of the “4 pioneering sections in China” requirements, and strive for the implementation of innovation-driven development strategy and the construction of an innovative country.