From "Nine Consecutive Championships" to Guangzhou's Gravity: Positioning Discourse Rights, Building "China's First City of Scenario Innovation"

Southern Finance Reporter Guo Sha, Guangzhou Report

As spring arrives, Guangzhou not only experiences rising temperatures but also sees a continued surge in investment attraction, with a number of major projects flooding into the city.

The Guangzhou High-Quality Development Conference signed 57 major projects with a total investment agreement of 130.5 billion yuan; the SKP, known as the “Global Store King,” settled in Guangzhou’s Zhujiang New Town Ma Chang site; a billion-level foreign investment project, Korea STI Power Semiconductor Manufacturing Base, settled in Baiyun District; and Singapore Shen Group (Sim Leisure Group) chose Huangpu District as the location for its “China debut.”

From advanced manufacturing to international commercial projects and emerging tech companies, more and more enterprises are focusing their development in this city. Recently, the South China American Chamber of Commerce released the “Special Report on the Economic Situation of South China in 2026,” showing that Guangzhou has ranked as China’s top investment destination for nine consecutive years.

Standing at a critical juncture at the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan, city competition has shifted from simple GDP comparisons to the contest for new quality productivity and industrial discourse power. The core of all this is projects and investments. The Guangzhou High-Quality Development Conference clearly stated that 2026 would be established as the “Year of Investment Promotion,” aiming to attract no fewer than 10 billion-yuan projects, 100 ten-billion-yuan projects, and 1,000 billion-yuan projects. Following this, Guangzhou held a high-level investment promotion work meeting and launched a comprehensive year-round large-scale investment campaign.

A series of actions demonstrate that the city’s investment logic has undergone a profound transformation—from competing on policies to competing on ecosystems and scenarios. Guangzhou’s vigorous year-long investment promotion is about identifying needs and opportunities from scenarios, proactively starting from industry, clustering enterprises into chains, forming synergy, and thus finding leverage to navigate cycles.

In Guangzhou Development Zone, every weekday at 9 a.m., Global Investment Director He Liping arrives punctually at work. His daily routine involves promoting Guangzhou Huangpu District’s investment environment to international companies. From his perspective, global companies’ confidence in Guangzhou and the Greater Bay Area continues to strengthen.

“Guangzhou, including my district, Guangzhou Development Zone and Huangpu District, boasts top-tier scientific research resources, abundant talent reserves, a favorable business environment, and considerate living services. Investing here allows broad global resource linkage and deep integration into international markets, with vast development space and endless business opportunities,” He Liping said. The zone focuses on biomedical, new energy, and new materials industries, which are highly innovative and offer more opportunities for enterprises.

This is not just his personal judgment. The South China American Chamber of Commerce’s “Special Report on the Economic Situation of South China in 2026” states that Guangzhou has ranked as China’s top investment destination for nine consecutive years.

Harry Sia, President and Chairman of the South China American Chamber of Commerce, further pointed out in an interview that more enterprises report that profitability in Guangdong, especially Guangzhou, far exceeds other regions in China and globally, with a significant increase in investment willingness compared to last year.

Looking at the growth path of foreign-invested enterprises in Guangzhou over a longer period helps explain why Guangzhou has become a “must-choice” for global companies.

Amway, headquartered in the U.S., has partnered with Guangzhou for over 30 years, starting with a simple question: “How can we help you?” Over these years, Amway has increased its investment in Guangzhou tenfold, deepening cooperation. From an initial production base, it was officially awarded the title of “Guangzhou City Partner & Strategic Partner” in August 2025, and now it co-creates the “Beautiful Life Plaza” as a partner, building urban public spaces.

Michael Neilsen, President and CEO of Amway Global, announced at the 2025 media event that Amway has launched a five-year, 2.1 billion yuan investment plan, with 700 million yuan allocated to upgrading the Guangzhou production base. This modern factory, with an annual capacity exceeding 60 billion yuan, is a core hub of Amway’s global supply chain, with products sold to over 50 countries and regions, supporting more than half of Amway’s global product sales. The newly completed R&D center and shared laboratories have created a complete closed loop from research to industrialization.

Similarly rooted in Guangzhou for 30 years is Zeiss. By 2025, Zeiss had invested over 4.1 billion yuan in Guangdong, with the Guangzhou factory contributing over 40% of its global capacity, making it one of its most important strategic manufacturing bases worldwide. Zeiss continues to expand in Guangzhou, with the third phase of the optical industrial 4.0 health optical industry ecosystem project in Zhongxin Knowledge City, with a total investment of over 400 million yuan.

German BASF also chooses to deepen its ties with Guangzhou. Last year, the Guangzhou municipal government signed a memorandum of cooperation with BASF and Xi’an Jiaotong University for a collaborative innovation center. BASF Greater China Chairman and President Lou Jianfeng said, “Guangzhou is an important foothold for BASF to expand in China. We will accelerate the development of new technologies and products in response to trends like digitalization, intelligence, and green development.”

Data shows that about 60,000 foreign-invested enterprises are now established in Guangzhou, including 368 Fortune 500 companies. By 2025, the city’s actual use of foreign capital reached 25.19 billion yuan, a 9.1% increase year-on-year, with over 10,000 new foreign-invested enterprises. Foreign enterprises, accounting for less than 2% of all companies, contribute nearly 20% of the revenue of above-scale service industries, 30% of total import and export value, and 40% of above-scale industrial added value.

Behind the reality of major projects settling in Guangzhou lies a deeper change—the upgrade of the investment promotion model itself.

For enterprises, the investment logic has shifted from being driven by factor costs to being driven by market scenarios and industrial ecosystems. For Guangzhou, the government’s role has gradually shifted from “manager” to “service provider” and “partner,” systematically creating conditions for enterprise growth. This is the fundamental reason why large projects continue to pour into Guangzhou.

In fact, the underlying logic of city competition has changed. In the past, it was about economic size; now, it’s about industrial discourse power. Previously, the focus was on the number of projects; now, it’s on who controls core technologies and defines industry standards. Especially in emerging industries—from low-altitude economy to artificial intelligence, from biomedicine to intelligent manufacturing—development heavily depends on application scenarios. Whether technology can be effectively implemented and products rapidly iterated largely depends on having sufficient testing environments and market space.

The Guangzhou High-Quality Development Conference emphasized conducting industry chain, scenario, and targeted investment promotion, aiming to build the “First City of Scenario Innovation in China.” This signals a shift from relying mainly on policy incentives and land supply to a new investment logic centered on industrial ecosystems and application scenarios. This change reflects a deep transformation in urban development philosophy.

Today, it is a reality that you can call an autonomous driving Robotaxi to and from the airport or high-speed rail station in downtown Guangzhou using your phone. Companies like Xiaoma Zhixing and Wenyuan Zhixing, dubbed the “Twin Stars” of Guangzhou autonomous driving, have successively listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Back in 2018, when Xiaoma Zhixing started in Nansha, there were no regulations for autonomous driving road testing in China, and no place in the country could conduct related tests. Guangzhou Nansha dared to “drink the first sip,” opening scenarios for enterprises, approving 5G remote driving tests, issuing passenger test licenses, and enabling commercialization—creating several “national firsts.” Today, the “Guangzhou Smart Connected Vehicle Innovation Development Regulations” have been officially implemented.

The same applies to the low-altitude economy. Xiaopeng Hui Tian, based in Tianhe, has turned the concept of a “land-based aircraft carrier” into reality thanks to Guangzhou’s open application scenarios. Its team now exceeds 1,800 people, with pre-orders surpassing 7,000 units. Founder Zhao Deli said, “Behind the digital aspect is Guangzhou’s excellent business environment, policy support, and talent-rich soil that give us confidence.”

He Liping said, “Global investors are paying more attention to industrial ecosystems and the business environment. We need to integrate resources and implement ‘all-element investment promotion,’ involving coordination across departments, leveraging land, technology, talent, capital, and scenarios to build trust and security.”

Meanwhile, investment promotion is forming a lively scene of “government setting the stage, enterprises performing, and everyone participating.” Leading enterprises are becoming the core force in “business-led investment promotion and chain strengthening.”

As a leading enterprise in Guangzhou’s biomedicine industry chain, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group held a product investment and recruitment mobilization conference on the first weekend after the Spring Festival, launching a “five-pronged” approach: recruiting customers, projects, products, talents, and capital. On March 13, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group and its listed subsidiary Guangzhou Baiyunshan held their first market expansion and investment promotion conference in Wuhan, focusing on high-quality projects in cell therapy, AI + pharmaceuticals, nuclear medicine, and high-end medical devices, aiming to bring more cutting-edge technological achievements into Guangzhou through a “Guangzhou headquarters + global resources” collaborative model.

Shao Jingbo, Deputy Director of the Guangzhou Investment and Development Committee Office, stated at the Guangzhou High-Quality Development Conference that Guangzhou will carry out scenario-based investment promotion tailored to local conditions, promote comprehensive element-based investment, and wholeheartedly serve enterprises. This year, over 180 “Invest in Guangzhou” events will be held, with high-frequency business attraction to continuously expand the global “friend circle.”