Guangzhou steps up efforts for better business environment

 Update:2019-12-30    Source: chinadaily.com.cn

Guangzhou is stepping up efforts to foster a better business environment to attract more investors, vice-mayor Chen Zhiying said on Wednesday. 

The city will work to offer better administrative services for companies and organizations that set up branches in Guangzhou, according to Chen. The goal is to help build the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area into a global financial center, he said.

Chen further added Guangzhou will fully leverage its strengths in industrial finance, green finance, and cross-border finance to create business opportunities for investors. Chen said he hopes to see strengthened relations and more communications among financial organizations in Guangzhou.

The remarks were made during a business and investment matching meeting for local governments, investors, and financial organizations held on Wednesday in Beijing.

A total of 33 projects, covering areas such as infrastructure, financial technology, and green technology, were signed at the meeting.

Qiu Yitong, head of the Guangzhou Financial Supervision and Management Bureau, said Guangzhou is improving its business environment and has made tangible progress.

In a recent report on Chinese cities' business environments by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Guangzhou ranked at the top among 34 major cities surveyed last year.

Guangzhou will continue working to build a modern financial service system with a focus on serving the real economy, deepening financial reforms, and preventing and controlling financial risks, Qiu said.

For the first three quarters this year, Guangzhou's financial sector has seen added value of 161.95 billion yuan ($23.14 billion), up 7.8 percent year-on-year and accounting for 9.1 percent of the city's GDP in the same period.

Guangzhou Port maintains its world ranking

 Update:2019-12-30    Source: eguangzhou.gov.cn

Guangzhou Port has a total of 52 friendly ports covering six continents all over the world, of which eight of them were signed this year.

Guangzhou Port has seen an overall container throughput of 21.18 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in the first 11 months of this year, ranking among the top five ports in the world in both cargo throughput and container throughput, the Guangzhou Port Authority announced on Dec 26.

"The global ranking of Guangzhou Port in the construction of an international shipping center has climbed to 16th in 2019 from 28th in 2015, according to the Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Center Development Index. Guangzhou Port is fourth in China only to Hong Kong Port, Shanghai Port, and Zhejiang's Zhoushan Port," said Yuan Yue, deputy director of the Guangzhou Port Authority.

Yuan noted that the monthly container throughput of Guangzhou Port in September has amounted to 2.03 million TEUs, setting a historic new high. The annual container throughput is expected to exceed over 23 million TEUs.

Eight liner ship lines for foreign trade of containers have been newly added this year, bringing the total number to 217. A total of 92 lines are heading to countries alongside the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), making Guangzhou Port a major pivotal port for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to reach Africa, the Mediterranean region, and Asia.

Guangzhou Port has a total of 52 friendly ports covering six continents all over the world, of which eight of them were signed this year, including the Port of Rotterdam in Netherlands and the Port Acu in Brazil.

Guangzhou Port has devoted efforts to becoming a training base for international shipping talents. Starting from 2016, Guangzhou Port has offered professional training for 175 students from 12 port countries alongside the BRI, including Indonesia, Angola, Egypt, Fiji, Gabon, Malaysia, Poland, and Russia, upgrading Guangzhou's influence in the global shipping service industry.

In order to contribute to the construction of the Greater Bay Area, Guangzhou Port has carried out deeper cooperation with nearby ports like Shenzhen and Dongguan ports.

The port has also gained great achievements in developing its water leisure industry, as 93 cruises berthed in Guangzhou. The tourist number of overseas cruises is expected to reach 441,800, ranking third in China.

How to start business in GD under new Foreign Investment Law

 Update:2020-01-03    Source: Newsgd.com

The Foreign Investment Law took effect January 1st. According to the authorities, to start a foreign-invested enterprise, investors do not need to go through approval procedures or place a file on record with the commercial departments.

The Foreign Investment Law will bring two major changes to foreign investors in Guangdong, as reported by the Yangcheng Evening News. The new law stipulates a "national treatment plus a negative list before entry" system, meaning foreign investors will enjoy more convenience when starting up a business in Guangdong.

At the same time, in addition to registration application documents, it is also necessary to fill in the foreign investment information report. Foreign investors or foreign-funded enterprises shall submit investment information to the relevant commerce department through both the enterprise registration system and the enterprise credit information publicity system.

Statistics shows that by the end of November 2019, Guangdong had 178,500 foreign-invested enterprises, accounting for about a quarter of the country's total, ranking first in the country.

Procedures to start a foreign invested enterprise

To start a foreign invested enterprise, the applicant should log in to the site ‘One Window Acceptance System Of Guangdong Province" (http://qykb.gdzwfw.gov.cn/qcdzhdj/, in Chinese) to apply for registration of establishing a foreign-funded enterprise.

The applicant shall complete registration information and the initial report at the "Start up enterprise" module. During the registration process, the investor shall guarantee it meets the requirements of Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List), clarify the industry category and code, and check the special management based on the actual situation.

Notably, the procedures for the establishment of foreign-invested enterprises in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai shall be formulated respectively by local governments. Please pay attention to the policies issued by local market regulatory authorities.

Guangzhou ranks 21st among global innovation clusters

 Update:2020-01-09    Source: Chinadaily.com.cn

Guangzhou supports the development of industries spanning the new generation of information technology, artificial intelligence, biological medicine, new energy, new materials, and marine technology.

Guangzhou has made great breakthroughs in developing technological innovation in 2019 as the city ranked 21st among the world's top 100 innovation clusters, rising from its 32nd ranking in 2018.

The Global Innovation Index, jointly released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Cornell University, and graduate business school INSEAD, started to rank the world's top 100 innovation clusters in 2017.

A total of 19 innovation clusters from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan were listed among the rankings, second only after the United States, which had 26.

According to a report released by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (ISTIC) on the innovation capacity of domestic innovative cities in 2019, Guangzhou ranked third among all 72 national innovation cities and was listed as second among the eight science and technology resource rich cities.

Research and development projects in major areas have been carried out in Guangzhou, expecting to make breakthroughs in a number of advanced key core technologies in the next three to five years, as well as to support development in fields spanning the new generation of information technology, artificial intelligence, biological medicine, new energy, new materials, and marine technology.

More than 3,100 innovation platforms above provincial levels have been established in Guangzhou and 10 national technology business incubators have been designated, ranking first in China, bringing the total number in Guangzhou to 36.

The technical contract turnover has been considered as an important indicator for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. Guangzhou's technical contract turnover reached 71.9 billion yuan ($10.32 billion), ranking tops in Guangdong province for the first time in recent years.

Guangzhou has also taken the lead in the number of high-tech companies, as well as small and medium-sized technology-based companies, thanks to Guangzhou's efforts in improving its local business environment.

The annual growth rate of Guangzhou's high-tech companies was 57.39 percent from 2016 to 2018, which was tops among all major cities in China.

Guangzhou to become an innovation tech hub for the Greater Bay Area

 Update:2020-01-10    Source: Newsgd.com

According to the Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau (Guangzhou Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs), the value of Guangzhou’s tech contract deals amounted to 100 billion RMB in 2019, up from 71.902 billion RMB in 2018, which was in turn double that of 2017.

Guangzhou, the 21st ranked cluster among the top 100 S&T clusters in 2019, moved up 11 places from its 2018 ranking of 32nd, according to the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2019, an innovation ranking benchmark. The GII 2019 also highlighted that China is home to 19 of the top 100 S&T clusters, and was ranked 14th among more than 100 economies worldwide, moving up three spots from 2018. It is also the only middle-income economy in the top 30. The GII report was jointly released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, Cornell University and several other organizations.

To become an innovation tech hub in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Guangzhou has placed particular emphasis on the frontier science fields. In 2019, the city spent 15 billion RMB on building major science and technology infrastructure, such as a deep-sea ecosystem, a dynamic wide-range velocity vehicle test unit, human cell lineage, and an integrated scientific investigation system for extreme marine environments.

Last May, Guangzhou entered into an agreement with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to build the 99 square kilometre Nansha Science City with its core area being the Pearl Science Park. The Science Park will serve as both the city’s science and technology and its high-end service centers when it is completed. The construction of the park officially started last September.

Statistics show that the average annual growth rate in the number of new high-tech enterprises in Guangzhou was 57.39% between 2016 and 2018, ranking first place nationwide. Over those three years, more than 3,000 new high-tech enterprises established themselves in the city. By the end of 2019, however, the total number is expected to exceed 12,000.

In addition, Guangzhou attaches great importance to attracting high-end talent. In 2017, the city unveiled a new set of measures for simplifying the work visa process including optimizing the workflow, simplifying application documents and shortening approval time. In August 2019, the city put forward specific implementation and measures regarding personal income tax deductions for high-demand individuals working in the city within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Now there are a huge number of high-end professionals working in the city:

● 3265 high-end foreign professionals with a Category A Work Permit, a 49% year-on-year increase

● 54 individuals from outside the Chinese mainland designated as ‘high-level talent’, accounting for 72% of the province’s total number

● 8 Nobel laureates

● Over 20 foreign academics

● 389 specially-invited experts introduced by the Recruitment Program of Global Experts

Huangpu welcomes another international advanced biomedical project

 Update:2020-01-15    Source: Chinadaily.com.cn

GDD signs a strategic cooperation agreement with Sinotech Tianze Biotech (Guangzhou) Co Ltd on Jan 11.

Guangzhou Development District (GDD) signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Sinotech Tianze Biotech (Guangzhou) Co Ltd on Jan 11 to join hands in promoting the development of high-end biomaterials and medical devices.

Sinotech Tianze Biotech (Guangzhou) Co Ltd was set up in GDD by Arthur Coury, former chairman of the Society for Biomaterials, as well as Wang Hao, doctor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his research team. A Sino-US research institute for advanced biomaterials was also established.

The research institute will focus on research and development along with the application of the new generation of bionic biomaterials, while the company will develop and industrialize the research outcomes of the institute.

In addition, the company will undertake a project, led by Arthur Coury, on basic bionic biomaterials, which can be widely applied to various medical devices, particularly interventional medical equipment.

The technology is expected to be released on the market within two years, reducing the country's import dependence, and is expected to be launched on the science and technology innovation board. The annual turnover of the technology in the upcoming five years will reach 3 billion yuan ($434.16 million).

A person in charge of the company pointed out during the signing ceremony that GDD, having complete infrastructure and abundant technological companies, is an important economic growth hub for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the whole of China, suitable as it is for the settling and development of technological projects and high-caliber talents.

WTO holds forum on platform economy and IPR protection in Nansha, Guangzhou

 Update:2020-01-16    Source: Newsgd.com

The 2020 Forum on Global Trade, Technology Innovation and Intellectual Property was held from January 14th to 15th in Nansha Guangzhou.

With the theme of ‘platform economy and intellectual property rights (IPR) protection’, the forum shed light into how the platform economy affects the trading of products, and dig deep into the topic through six sub-forums on the effects, economic value, legislation, law enforcement, and technologies of IPR protection under the context of platform economy.

Yi Xiaozhun, Deputy Director General of World Trade Organization, said technologies, especially the development of Internet, have changed the international trade massively in terms of trading modes and subjects over the past decades.“The forum aims to share the experience of global trade, knowledge innovation and IPR system,” Yi said.

“The forum invites different stakeholders, such as IP owners, platform operators and administrators, from all over the world,”he added,“we confront similar opportunities and challenges so it will benefit our stakeholders to further communication on management, legal issues and new technologies including AI and blockchain.”

The forum attracted judges of IP Courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, government officials of related departments, IPR administrators from countries including Europe, Canada and Basil as well as representatives of tech enterprises including Alibaba, Xiaomi and Baidu.

Han Xiucheng, Director of Intellectual Property Department & Research Center of China National Intellectual Property Administration, revealed that platform economy takes up more than 10 percent of China’s GDP and the number is growing rapidly, and he said IPR policy is vital to protect platform technologies and encourage innovation from platform operators.

Han said China has been attaching importance to IPR protection since 2012.“Improving our protection on IPR needs efforts from different stakeholders. While Enterprises should also raise their awareness of IPR management and protection as well,”he said.

In addition, the forum witnessed the release of the Trade and Intellectual Rights Nansha Initiative which shows the determination to improve IPR protection through better understanding of market demands, enhancing administrative and legal protection as well as fostering professional IPR management institutions. Guangdong Provincial Office of Pilot Free Trade Zones, Guangdong Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, Guangdong Sub-Administration of China Customs, Nansha FTZ, Qianhai FTZ and Hengqin FTZ jointly signed the Initiative.

The forum was held by WTO, Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation and Intellectual Property Development and Research Center China National Intellectual Property Administration.