Tianhe district has attached great importance to scientific and technological innovation since its establishment 36 years ago, said Duan Xi, the district's deputy head, at a symposium of the 2021 Understanding China Conference that kicked off on Dec 2 in Guangzhou.

In 2020, the district's DGP reached 531.28 billion yuan ($83.41 billion), accounting for one fifth of Guangzhou's total and ranking first in the city for 14 consecutive years. It also topped the nation in terms of business environment and investment competitiveness.

Duan Xi speaks at the 2021 Understanding China Conference. [Photo/Nanfang Plus]

"The reason why Tianhe has made such achievements is that we know innovation is the primary driving force for development," said Duan, adding that Keyun Road and Zhujiang New Town are typical representatives.

Keyun Road is located in the central part of Tianhe, with a length of 11 kilometers. In 1999, the surrounding area of the road launched a rent-free policy, attracting more than 900 software development enterprises.

Statistics show that 80 percent of the gaming enterprises in Guangzhou are located around Keyun Road, and more than 90 percent of the gaming enterprises were incubated here, said Duan.

Zhujiang New Town is one of the areas with the highest concentrations of skyscrapers over 300 meters in China. The secret to its success in sci-tech innovation lies in the highly concentrated resources and well-developed public services, Duan noted.

The NetEase headquarters in Tianhe district. [Photo/WeChat account: tianhefabu]

The area is home to nearly 20,000 digital service enterprises, more than 700 high-tech enterprises and 295 large-scale software enterprises, as well as 70 percent of the licensed financial institutions in Guangzhou, one third of the city's accounting firms, one fifth of the real estate intermediary companies and 70 percent of the human resources institutions.

Tianhe has been focusing on cultivating innovation subjects and improving high-quality development policies, Duan added. To date, the district has gathered more than 450,000 enterprises, of which nearly 120,000 are scientific ones and 3,000 are national high-tech enterprises.

In the future, Tianhe will continue to carry out independent innovation in order to build itself into an innovation hub in the Guandong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and help Guangzhou become a strong sci-tech innovation city with global influence, said Duan.