Scientific industry in Nansha achieves rapid development

The Nansha area of the Guangdong (China) Pilot Free Trade Zone has established a sound mechanism for innovative development in the past five years, achieving a variety of fruitful outcomes.

Nansha has invested a total financial investment of 5.72 billion yuan ($807.99 million) in science and technology in the past five years, with its total investment in 2019 amounting to 2.25 billion yuan, which was 4.23 times of the investment made in 2015.

The ratio of research and development expenditure to regional gross domestic product reached 3.46 percent in 2018 and Nansha has ranked second in Guangzhou in both ratio and growth rate for two consecutive years.

At present, Nansha has established a total of 331 innovative platforms, being 3.41 times of that in 2015, while R&D institutions of companies above the municipal levels accounted for 77.34 percent of its total.

The area has applied for 33,277 patents in five years, with an annual average growth of 52.8 percent. The number for patent licensing has amounted to 17,275, with an annual average growth of 49.6 percent.

The development of the new energy vehicles industry in Nansha has gained great momentum as projects from industrial giants like GAC Toyota Motor and GAC-NIO New Energy Automobile Co have settled in the area.

It is expected that the production capacity of finished vehicles in Nansha will exceed over 2 million in the future.

Positive outcomes in cooperation among Nansha, Hong Kong, and Macao have also been made in areas spanning important carrier construction, scientific outcomes transformation, as well as youth innovation and entrepreneurship.

Two innovation and entrepreneurship platforms in Nansha for Hong Kong and Macao youths have welcomed 215 groups.

The HKUST One Million Dollar International Entrepreneurship Competition in Nansha has been held for four consecutive years since 2016, attracting more than 3,600 entrepreneurship groups from both home and abroad.

The South China Technology Commercialization Center, which was established in Nansha in April 2018, has been developing into a new brand for Nansha's scientific services.

"We have been the first in China to establish the model of using science and technology to service the development of e-commerce," said Li Kui, chief executive officer of the center.

Li noted that the platform has clustered more than 300,000 kinds of quality innovative resources in various forms since its official operation in August 2019, attracting more than 600 quality scientific service institutions, as well as over 3,000 scientific and technological enterprise in Guangdong to settle in the center.

The development of the new energy vehicles industry in Nansha gains great momentum. [Photo/gznsnews.com.cn]