Pearl River Delta transforms from world factory to technology hub

NEW DEVELOPMENT DRIVERS

In Nansha District of Guangzhou, passengers are able to find the whereabouts of 500 stops for self-driving taxis using the mobile application PonyPilot+. Chinese autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai has introduced the robotaxi services in the district's core area covering 300 square kilometers.

"With the continuous growth of research and development as well as the application of autonomous driving in China in recent years, China is no longer a follower, but a global leader in terms of policy openness, technological development and user acceptance in this field," said Mo Luyi, vice president of Pony.ai.

Pony.ai is just one of the enterprises in the Pearl River Delta area that play a leading role in various sectors. In the past decade, Huawei has risen rapidly in the fields of network communication and intelligent terminals, BYD in electric vehicles, DJI in civil drones, Tencent in the mobile internet, and BGI in life sciences. All of these rises have taken a place in the global technology industry.

Statistics from the Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province show that the total number of high-tech enterprises in Guangdong exceeded 60,000 in 2021, ranking first in China for six consecutive years. Science and technology enterprises have become an important force in Guangdong's efforts to create a new development pattern.

A number of leading science and technology enterprises that are internationally competitive have emerged, and a number of hard and core technology enterprises in emerging industries have been cultivated in Guangdong, and they have become the backbone of the province's high-quality economic development, said Gong Guoping, director of the provincial department of science and technology.