Guangzhou recently announced a plan to overhaul the city's service industry in the coming five years. The plan is aimed at establishing Guangzhou as a national center for the service industry. It calls for the consolidation of the foundation of competitive service businesses and the development of key functional zones.
According to government planners, Guangzhou's service industry accounts for 61% of the city's GDP, the second highest percentage in China, but there remain certain deficiencies in the industry's composition and mechanism. Although the city has entered a post-industrialization era and its per capita GDP has surged, the standard of the city's service industry lags behind that of medium-income countries. The municipal government has resolved to reform the service industry to bring it into line with the city's socio-economic development.
Under the plan, Guangzhou will take steps to transform the means of growth of its service industry in three phases.
The steps include building seven key functional zones as pilot zones for the industry's reform initiatives by pushing innovation, offering incentives, and promoting investment, and setting specific development targets for the zones' top four service functions finance, logistics, information, and corporate headquarters economics.
The seven key functional zones include the Zhujiang New Town and Yuancun area, which is meant to become a world-class central business district; the Pazhou area, which will be established as an international convention and exhibition business center; the Bai'ertan area, which is set to become the "heart of Guangzhou and Foshan" and an international business center; Baiyu New Town, which will become a highly livable district and a new cultural and commercial center; the South Guangzhou Railway Station, which is intended to become a window on the development of the Pearl River Delta and a platform for commerce and trade; the airport economic zone, which will become a modern metropolitan area; and the seaport economic zone, which is expected to become an international logistics hub.
(Translated by Guangzhou Association of Foreign Affairs Translators)
