Cai Chaolin tells stories of Guangzhou at Boao Asia Forum

A storytelling session featuring the city of Guagnzhou was held in Boao, Hainan province on March 27, as part of the 2019 Boao Forum for Asia, which was held in the city, March 26-29.

Through three stories, Cai Chaolin, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee and Party secretary of the CPC Nansha District Committee, demonstrated the city’s opening-up and business opportunities, as well as its vitality.

The painter Xiao Lin, director Wei Tie, and Olympic champion Lei Sheng and 11 other celebrities told stories about the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong- Macao Greater Bay Area.

The first story was about the Swedish merchant ship Gothenburg's three voyages to Guangzhou two and a half centuries ago. In 2006, the ship Gothenburg visited Guangzhou again along the ancient route, sailing a new voyage of Sino-Swedish friendship.

Since China’s reform and opening-up, Guangzhou has taken the lead in setting up Sino-foreign joint venture enterprises, Sino-foreign cooperative business operation enterprises and exclusively foreign-owned enterprises.

Its comprehensive strength has been significantly improved. It has developed into an important central city, international business center and comprehensive transportation hub in China.

The second story was about a small technology company Pony AI from Silicon Valley. In October 2017, Pony.AI settled in Nansha. After more than four months, it successfully launched its first L4 self-driving team.

Its success came from Guangzhou's strong support for the development of the artificial intelligence industry and its open cooperation platform in the district.

Guangzhou has nearly 70 percent of the colleges and universities and many of the sci-tech talents and national key laboratories in Guangdong province.

It has more than one million college students and nearly 170,000 scientific and technological innovation enterprises, and the number of its high-tech enterprises exceeds 10,000.

The third story was about the business environment. In recent years, a number of internationally renowned companies such as Foxconn, LG, and Siemens have set major projects in Guangzhou. 

In one case it took only 31 days from the registration to the official beginning of construction, creating a new record of investment settlement speed. “Guangzhou efficiency” has been highly praised by domestic and foreign investors.

In recent years, Guangzhou has learned from advanced cities around the world, and has taken the lead in launching “Artificial Intelligence + Robotics” business registration, creating a new “no-approval” business model for commercial registration.

Cai said that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is one of the most dynamic regions in the world. In 2018, the regional GDP was nearly $1.6 trillion and the total population was about 70 million. It has strong development potential and broad market prospects.

At present, the construction of the Greater Bay Area is embracing the golden opportunity for development.