Guangdong to promote manufacturing innovation

Guangdong province will further promote innovative development and create a favorable atmosphere for the province's manufacturing enterprises in the months to come.

Xiao Zhenyu, deputy director of the Guangdong provincial department of industry and information technology, said the provincial government attaches great importance to the innovative development of its manufacturing sector, which plays a big part in the province's economy.

The province will ramp up efforts to enhance its favorable environment for innovation, he said.

Xiao made the remarks at a news conference in Guangzhou, Guangdong, on Wednesday.

The province launched an event on Wednesday to demonstrate independent innovation achievements accomplished by local enterprises.

"Large industrial enterprises with a main business income of over 500 million yuan ($68.52 million) have all established research and development institutions," Xiao said.

About 90 percent of scientific research institutions, researchers, R&D funds and invention patent applications in the province come from enterprises, he added.

Wang Yuyin, deputy director of the Guangzhou bureau of industry and information technology, said the provincial capital government has implemented the action plan for the integration and development of innovation and industry chains, while actively leveraging the role of enterprise innovation entities, to accelerate the construction of a manufacturing innovation center system.

"Meanwhile, the city government supports a group of leading enterprises in building innovation platforms and driving high-quality development of the biopharmaceutical industry through innovation," said Wang. "The biopharmaceutical industry is a strategic industrial cluster that Guangzhou city government is fully committed to developing."

Guangzhou has invested more than 300 funds in the field of biomedicine, with a total capital of more than 280 billion yuan.

"Now the city has gathered more than 6,800 enterprises in biomedicine and health industries, including 12 Fortune 500 companies, 24 national level innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, or "little giants", and another over 1,000 high-tech enterprises," he said.

Wang Ning, an official from the Shenzhen bureau of industry and information technology, said Shenzhen has set goals to accelerate the construction of a globally leading advanced manufacturing center and the creation of a "new generation world-class automobile city".

Shenzhen has issued the first local regulations for the management of intelligent connected vehicles in the country and has taken the lead in releasing 10 local standards for such vehicles, providing a basis and management norms for the admission and commercial application of intelligent connected vehicles.

According to official data, Shenzhen produced more than 1.73 million new energy vehicles last year, becoming the largest NEV production city nationwide.

Additionally, the city's NEV production is expected to amount to more than 2.8 million units this year, consolidating its position as the largest producer of new energy vehicles in the country, Wang said.

Ji Honglei, chief engineer of TCL King Electrical Appliances (Huizhou) Co Ltd, said that in line with the efforts of the provincial government, the Huizhou city government attaches great importance to and has been supporting innovation in enterprises in recent years.

Ji said his company has invested more than 130 million yuan in technology R&D this year.

"The company, which now has 4,800 R&D personnel and 5,600 valid invention patents, also actively participates in the formulation of international and national industry standards," said Ji.