Recently, Guangzhou Marine Equipment Group and Guangzhou Science and Technology Innovation Service Group were unveiled simultaneously, signing strategic cooperation agreements with research institutes and industry chain enterprises. The birth of these two platform-type state-owned enterprises represents a significant move by Guangzhou to drive state capital toward cultivating new quality productive forces, set against the backdrop of the nationwide deepening of state-owned enterprise reform.
Chen Feng, associate researcher at the Institute of Modern Industry Studies of the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, stated that during the previous three-year action for deepening and upgrading SOE reform, Guangzhou's state-owned capital and enterprises established a solid foundation in specialized integration, market-oriented operations, capital management, and industrial layout. The new round of SOE reform requires state capital to achieve the "three concentrations." For Guangzhou, what truly matters is not "which industries to concentrate on" but rather establishing a state capital function system compatible with a megacity and advanced manufacturing base.
SOEs Launch a New Round of Reform as Guangzhou Pushes to Accelerate Emerging Track Layouts
In June of this year, a national video conference on mobilizing and deploying the further deepening of SOE reform was held, proposing that state-owned enterprises should highlight their strategic mission, focus on their core responsibilities and main business, promote deep integration of technological and industrial innovation, strengthen controls over unrelated diversification, multi-layered structures, and excessive debt, and advance restructuring, integration, and resource revitalization in accordance with the "three concentrations" requirement. The "three concentrations" for state capital refer to "concentrating toward important industries and key areas related to national security and the lifelines of the national economy, concentrating toward public services, emergency response capabilities, and public welfare areas related to national welfare and people's livelihood, and concentrating toward forward-looking strategic emerging industries."
At the meeting of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee held on August 25, work on SOE reform was deployed, proposing to improve the functional classification of state-owned enterprises, consolidate and upgrade traditional advantage industries, accelerate the layout of emerging tracks, strengthen the principal role of SOEs in innovation, take the lead in opening application scenarios, and build platforms for transforming scientific and technological achievements. "Tailored measures for each enterprise" will be implemented with long-cycle assessments to promote high-quality development of state-owned capital and enterprises.
Looking back at the previous reform cycle, from 2023 to 2025, Guangzhou's state capital had already laid a solid foundation through the SOE reform deepening and upgrading action. By the end of 2025, the city's total state-owned enterprise assets reached 7.9 trillion yuan, with net assets of 1.9 trillion yuan. The number of state-controlled listed companies (A+H) had increased to 42, high-tech enterprises and specialized and sophisticated SMEs reached 435 and 321 respectively, and the number of Fortune Global 500 companies increased to 4. In terms of layout, Guangzhou's state capital concentrated resources to increase investment in intelligent connected vehicles, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, and other fields. Over the past three years, Guangzhou's state-owned enterprises planned and advanced a batch of key new quality productive forces projects. The operating revenue of strategic emerging industries as a share of municipal state-owned enterprises has risen to 35%, and the output value rate of high-tech products exceeded 70%. The role of SOEs has transformed from "urban service guarantor" to "value creator."
Chen Feng believes that after the deepening and upgrading action of the past three years, Guangzhou's SOEs have formed a solid foundation. Starting this year, a new round of systematic and deep-level reform has begun, and SOE reform has officially entered a new stage of quality improvement, focus, and strengthened supervision. For Guangzhou, the core of this round of reform is the shift from enterprise-level reform to the reshaping of the layout and functions of the state-owned economy, deepening the reform from "strengthening individual enterprises" to "enhancing the overall function of the state-owned economy," expanding from "enterprise self-development" to "serving industrial development and strategic goals," and transforming from "partial adjustments" to "systematic optimization."
Platform-Type SOE Matrix Expands, Continuing to Converge Toward Urban Strategic Directions
The recent unveiling of two major platform-type new SOEs is an important move by Guangzhou in the context of the nationwide further deepening of SOE reform.
Guangzhou Marine Equipment Group is rooted in Guangzhou's marine industry foundation. On the manufacturing side, it focuses on three major segments: ship power, marine engineering, and offshore new energy equipment, filling in key supporting links in the industrial chain. On the service side, it lays out marine service formats such as green power operation and maintenance, industrial park construction and operation, and inspection, testing, and certification, building marine science and technology innovation platforms, industrial development funds, and innovation alliances, and constructing a full-lifecycle service system for marine equipment. Its goal is to build a domestically influential leading marine equipment enterprise by the end of the "15th Five-Year Plan," supporting the construction of a global marine center city.
Guangzhou Science and Technology Innovation Service Group focuses on four main businesses: cultivating technology managers, transforming scientific and technological achievements, empowering science and technology investment, and incubating and nurturing science and technology enterprises. It builds a one-stop cultivation system of "supply-demand matching, financial empowerment, incubation and development, and ecosystem support," gathering innovation resources from government, industry, academia, research, finance, services, and users, cultivating a versatile technology manager workforce, and opening up the "last mile" of scientific and technological achievement implementation, helping Guangzhou build a city with global influence in science and technology innovation.
In fact, establishing platform-type SOEs is already a path that Guangzhou's state capital has been continuously advancing. In recent years, relying on existing groups, it has successively established the International Convention and Exhibition Group, International Trade Group, Culture and Sports Industry Development Group, Health Care Group, and Agricultural Development Group. With the addition of the two platforms of marine equipment and science and technology innovation services, Guangzhou has formed a multi-level platform matrix covering convention and exhibition, domestic and foreign trade, culture and sports, health care, modern agriculture, marine equipment, and science and technology innovation services. State capital continues to converge toward urban strategy and industrial upgrading directions.
Chen Feng stated that from these new platform-type SOEs, it can be seen that Guangzhou's state capital is moving beyond simple infrastructure and financing functions, turning toward industrial organization, ecosystem building, and chain leader cultivation, to support the construction of a modern industrial system and the development of new quality productive forces. Next, promoting state capital to achieve the "three concentrations" for Guangzhou is not simply determining which industries capital should be invested in, but rather establishing a state capital function system adapted to a megacity and advanced manufacturing base, with state capital gradually shifting from traditional asset operation to assuming roles in industrial organization, strategic investment, and urban function integration.
Experts Suggest Addressing Current Investment Shortcomings and Upgrading State Capital to Industry Cultivator
Chen Feng also pointed out that while the reform has achieved phased results, there are still certain shortcomings in the development of Guangzhou's state capital, which are also difficult issues that this round of reform needs to address. The most prominent point is that municipal state-owned enterprises have a relatively weak presence in direct investment in hard technology and cultivation of chain leader enterprises.
Although over the past three years Guangzhou's state capital has achieved a transformation from enterprise independent research and development to a collaborative model of "enterprise innovation + capital investment + industrial chain integration," science and technology investment has remained more at the "investing in projects" level, and there is still a gap from systematically "cultivating industries and building ecosystems."
At the same time, the new platform-type SOEs themselves also face challenges. The teams, business models, and industrial resource integration of newly established platforms all require a relatively long cultivation period.
Chen Feng stated that the positioning of platform-type SOEs is as builders of industrial ecosystems, but they face competition from market-oriented venture capital institutions and private enterprises, and need to balance long-term strategic goals with operational risks, thus testing the flexibility and professional capabilities of state capital supervision.
He believes that Guangzhou's state capital science and technology investment needs to shift from "investing in projects" to "cultivating enterprises, strengthening chain leaders, promoting transformation, and building ecosystems." Relying on the optimization of state capital layout, with long-term capital, chain leader enterprises, and application scenarios as handles, it should open up the complete chain from original innovation, early-stage investment, technology verification, industrialization to the capital market, and promote the role of state capital from project investor to industry cultivator.
"Of course, we are also pleased to see that Guangzhou's SOEs no longer simply pursue asset scale expansion, but rely on platform-type SOEs as industrial organization carriers to allocate state capital to the strategic tracks that the city needs most," Chen Feng said. The new round of reform tests the ability of state capital to cultivate industries, organize innovation, and serve national strategy even more. Now, with platform-type SOEs as a handle, promoting state capital to converge toward strategic industries and opening up the innovation chain, industrial chain, capital chain, and talent chain, Guangzhou's state capital is expected to continue playing the role of ballast and engine, providing solid support for the construction of a modern industrial system in a megacity and the cultivation of new quality productive forces.
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