Tianhe district in Guangzhou was awarded as the model of the high-quality development of the building economy in China at the Beijing Forum on China Building Economy on Sept 7, being the only district in the city to win this honor.

The forum is an important part of the 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), which was held in Beijing from Sept 2 to 7, and was supported by the Investment Promotion Agency of the Ministry of Commerce.

Fix indexes, namely governmental services, investment operators, settled enterprises, employees and communities were selected to evaluate the building economy.

The Tianhe central business district (CBD) is one of the three major CBDs in China. In 2020, its GDP exceeded 300 billion yuan ($46.48 billion), and the average GDP of the 12-square-kilometer built-up area surpassed 25 billion yuan.

Guangzhou International Commercial Center (Guangzhou ICC) in Tianhe. [Photo/thnet.gov.cn]

There are currently 124 business office buildings in the Tianhe CBD, with a total combined floorage of more than 14 million square meters. Among them, 71 buildings have an annual tax revenue of over 100 million yuan and 17 have an annual tax revenue of over 1 billion yuan.

The Tianhe CBD issued the Tianhe Standards to improve the buildings' sustainable development in 2017, becoming the nation's first to implement sustainable building management in line with international and Hong Kong standards.

The standards were further improved in 2020 and included indicators like public health, waste classification and 5G applications that reflect current social development requirements and national key development strategies.

It now has 120 headquarters enterprises, accounting for one fourth of the city's total, and 216 licensed financial institutions, making up 70 percent of the city's total.

In addition, two office buildings in Tianhe – the Guangzhou ICC and the Yuexiu Financial Tower – were selected as the new landmark projects of building economy in China at the forum.