The leading economic powerhouse of Guangzhou, Tianhe District, has outlined a bold ambition to reach a trillion-yuan GDP target by the time of the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The recently released "15th Five-Year Plan" for the district details a strategy to strengthen its "4+4" development positioning and core functions, aiming for a GDP exceeding 800 billion yuan by 2027 and hitting the trillion-yuan milestone by 2030.
As the district moves from its current 700-billion-yuan base toward the trillion-yuan mark, the question of where this growth will originate arises. Chen Jianrong, the district's deputy secretary and mayor, stated that the strategy involves "simultaneously promoting industry and commerce, and integrating the two sectors." By leveraging the combined momentum of the CBD (Central Business District) and CTD (Central Science and Technology District), the district aims for a dual-winged takeoff of "Tianhe Services" and "Tianhe Smart Manufacturing," positioning itself as a primary hub for new quality productive forces. During the 15th Five-Year Plan, efforts will focus on modern services, modern urban industries, technological innovation, and global resource allocation.
Pursuing Sector Integration to Broaden Industrial Space
The district has outlined a clear industrial pathway to achieve this GDP target. Tianhe will adhere to the principle of "simultaneously promoting industry and commerce, and integrating the two sectors," with a focus on creating a leading demonstration zone for modern service industry innovation and a cluster zone for modern urban industry. As a stronghold for modern services, Tianhe leads Guangzhou in sectors like finance, software, commerce, and high-end professional services. Chen Jianrong noted that the district will implement an action plan to expand and enhance the service sector, improving its digital, integrated, high-end, and international standards to showcase its best offerings.
On the industrial front, Tianhe will leverage its advantages in artificial intelligence, industrial software, and data aggregation to develop smart manufacturing. Key projects include building the 2112 Industrial Park, the Guangtang Embodied Intelligent Sci-Tech City, the Guangzhou Low-Altitude Safety Innovation Port, and the Redtory·Greater Bay Area Physical AI Innovation Core. In line with these industrial plans, the district will also construct a "dual-core-led, axis-driven" spatial layout for the 15th Five-Year Plan period, focusing on the CBD and CTD as the two core functional zones.
Li Huiwu, vice chairman of the Guangdong Provincial 15th Five-Year Plan Expert Committee and a former counselor to the provincial government, observed that many global metropolises have evolved from a single-core CBD model to a dual-drive model involving both CBD and CTD. The coordinated layout of the CBD and CTD has become a common path for world-class cities to advance to higher levels. Li believes Tianhe's proposal for a "dual-core-led, axis-driven" spatial pattern is a precise structural optimization and comprehensive quality improvement. It is a key measure to address regional development imbalances, stimulate new vitality, and align with the inevitable spatial evolution of advanced global cities.
As a rare district globally that excels in both modern services and technological innovation, Tianhe possesses the unique advantage of having its "dual cores" in close proximity. This layout, according to Li, is a crucial tool for the district to fill gaps and rebuild its development advantages. The biggest highlight is the reinforcement of the two-way empowerment and complementary strengths between the CTD, which focuses on original innovation and results commercialization, and the CBD, which provides full-chain support for high-end services and headquarters economy.
Strengthening Tech Leadership to Convert Innovation Momentum
Sustained new growth drivers are essential for reaching the trillion-yuan GDP target. In terms of technological leadership, Tianhe proposes building a "Science and Technology Innovation Special Zone," with a focus on original innovation, results commercialization, and nurturing innovation entities. By leveraging its concentration of universities and research institutes, the district will establish a joint talent training mechanism, deepen AI-enabled scientific research, and strengthen organized research efforts to become a source of scientific and technological innovation in the Greater Bay Area.
Simultaneously, Tianhe will build a series of university science parks, new infrastructure, and high-quality incubators. It will adopt flexible employment models like "schools hiring and enterprises using" and promote more efficient commercialization of scientific and technological achievements through mechanisms like "credit + finance + innovation" and "government policy + technology insurance + bank financing." The number of industrial innovation entities will also be expanded. The district will focus on fields like artificial intelligence, quantum technology, and brain-computer interfaces, supporting enterprises to lead in forming innovation consortia and deepening cooperation mechanisms to foster collaborative development among large, medium, and small enterprises.
Notably, Tianhe has positioned artificial intelligence as its "number one industry." Given the competitive landscape for AI development both domestically and internationally, Chen Jianrong explained that Tianhe's AI industry scale and number of above-scale enterprises account for about 40% of Guangzhou's total, making it a hotbed for the intelligent economy. For the 15th Five-Year Plan, the district will focus on three dimensions—data, security, and science—to form a unique approach for accelerating the development of new intelligent economic forms.
High-quality datasets are the core foundation for AI development. Tianhe, as a national data industry cluster area, hosts over 7,200 data-related enterprises and has developed 25 high-quality datasets, accounting for 36% of Guangzhou's total. The district will implement an "AI+" and "Data Elements×" action, building "data factories," high-quality datasets, and trusted data spaces in areas like real-world physical scenario data.
The security and governance of AI are also critical for the direction and pace of industrial development. Tianhe will coordinate the development of intelligent security and security intelligence, tackling core technologies like AI endogenous security and adversarial training in areas such as model algorithm security, data security, and technical application security. The district will also innovate in scientific intelligence, supporting research institutions in building autonomous laboratories, developing scientific foundational models, and creating a closed-loop "dry-wet" research model, while focusing on fields like quantum technology, embodied intelligence, materials science, and life sciences.
Building Three Key Hubs to Attract Global Resources
To enhance its development level, Tianhe must further improve its ability to allocate global resources. The district plans to build three major hubs: for innovative capital, digital trade, and foreign-related legal services. Finance is a traditional strength for Tianhe, serving as a crucial support for new industries. The Tianhe CBD has been ranked 22nd among global business districts, with significant projects like the 100-billion-yuan Guangdong Strategic Emerging Industry Guidance Fund and the 10-billion-yuan CITIC AIC national headquarters landing there. During the 15th Five-Year Plan, Tianhe will work to build an international comprehensive financial center, seeking first trials of financial innovation policies and attracting more domestic and international innovative capital.
In digital trade, Tianhe will leverage its advantages as a national base for both digital service exports and cultural exports. It will strengthen distinctive areas like software technology, R&D design, and digital entertainment, aiming to become a national demonstration zone for digital trade. For foreign-related legal services, the district will utilize platforms such as the Greater Bay Area International Business and Digital Economy Arbitration Center, the Financial Legal Service Center, and the Overseas Interests Protection Center to provide full-chain support for enterprises going global.
Li Huiwu remarked that the goal of "striving for a trillion-yuan level city district" is a logical response to development laws and a strategic choice from a macroeconomic perspective. He believes that surpassing the trillion-yuan GDP is an inevitable choice for Tianhe to use "reasonable growth in quantity" to support "effective improvement in quality." With the district's economy already exceeding the 700-billion-yuan mark, Li noted that historical trends from advanced city districts across China suggest a transition period of about five years from 700 billion to over a trillion yuan. The goal is not merely about economic scale expansion but about achieving a coordinated leap in development quality, structure, scale, and efficiency. Striving for a trillion-yuan GDP is a strategic move to stabilize social expectations, boost market confidence, and leverage larger-scale effective investment to continuously activate the regional economy's endogenous dynamism.
Li Huiwu further emphasized that striving for a trillion-yuan GDP represents Tianhe's strategic responsibility to "shoulder the heavy load" as Guangzhou's economic leader. For 19 consecutive years, Tianhe has ranked first in Guangzhou's economic output, accounting for over one-fifth of the city's total. During the 15th Five-Year Plan, Tianhe must maintain its urban development potential and accelerate its leap from a large economic district to a strong economic district. This is an intrinsic need for its own development and a necessary path to provide core support for Guangzhou to enhance its global resource allocation capabilities and overall competitiveness. In Li's view, the pursuit of a trillion-yuan level district is a strategic choice based on its own strengths, seizing opportunities of the era, and serving the larger national, provincial, and city-level strategic picture. It is a scientific layout that balances current growth with long-term development, injecting strong core momentum into Guangzhou's high-quality development and the construction of the Greater Bay Area.
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