Guangzhou's Yuexiu district has been working on releasing an action plan for becoming a pilot area for the life sciences and health industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, announced Chen Xi, deputy head of Yuexiu district, on March 23.

Chen noted that the district will further promote the development of the health industry and turn the area into a cluster for the high-end life sciences industry with international competitiveness.

Yuexiu, as one of the core areas of Guangzhou, is home to 233 scientific institutions at national, provincial or municipal levels, four national key laboratories in life sciences, as well as 14 3A-grade hospitals, the highest of China's three-tier grading system for public hospitals.

Guangzhou has been devoting great efforts in developing strategic emerging industries like biomedicine and artificial intelligence, as well as upgrading local medical institutions and introducing leading companies in the health industry to the area.

The national demonstration base for smart health elderly care, the first of its kind in Guangdong province, is located in Yuexiu and the base is expected to finish construction by December 2020 with the ability to hold about 300 and 400 seniors.

Preferential policies will also be launched to bolster the development of the health industry in Yuexiu.

In the past five years, more than 100 companies in the health industry with a scale of over 10 million yuan ($1.41 million) have registered in the district in the past five years, propelling the added value of Yuexiu's health industry to exceed 20 billion yuan per year.

Guangzhou's Yuexiu district works on becoming a pilot area for the life sciences and health industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. [Photo by Wu Weihong/southcn.com]