China Daily:

We learned that the GDP of Guangdong province is expected to surpass 10 trillion yuan in 2019. So my question is what achievements has Guangdong made in promoting high-quality economic development and building a modern economic system, especially in the layout of emerging industries? Thanks.

Ma Xingrui:

Thanks for your question. The GDP of Guangdong province has ranked first in the country for 30 years in a row. As you mentioned, this year it will hit 10 trillion yuan. But for Guangdong, there still remains problems in achieving high-quality development.

First, it must be reflected in the economic system. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has visited Guangdong twice and attended the plenary sessions of the Guangdong NPC delegation twice. He made a series of important instructions, clearly requiring Guangdong to play a leading role in building the system and mechanism to promote high-quality development and a modern economic system. Currently, we should ensure that the market plays its decisive role in resource allocation, and we should give better play to the role of the government, which were also clearly pointed out at the third plenary session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC. In accordance with the requirements of the Party Central Committee, we are deepening the supply-side structural reform. In this respect, the government is to provide an institutional environment of rule of law and with preferential policies for companies, especially for the real economy. In recent years, we published a series of policies in support of the real economy, private economy, foreign trade, and employment as well. For example, Guangdong took the lead in overall planning of  pension for employees working for local enterprises, bringing benefits to companies and people.

Second, we must focus on developing market players. Guangdong is now home to 11.46 million individual business and companies, with nearly 5 million companies among them, ranking it first in China. Currently, a total of 12 companies in Guangdong have entered the Fortune Global 500 list and the revenue from the main business operations of 29 companies has exceeded 100 billion yuan. So I think all of these are very important. Meanwhile, to develop the market economy, we must focus on developing industrial clusters. Now we already have two industrial clusters which have a total output value of more than one trillion yuan and are engaged in electronic information and green petrochemical. We also have seven emerging industrial clusters with an output value of over 100 billion yuan respectively. There are many examples like these.

First, we took the lead in pushing the development of the 4K UHD (ultrahigh definition) video industry. In the past, we had 1K and 2K, and now we have 4K, bringing many benefits to technology, industries and the lives of people. Now the output of 4K TV accounts for about half of the country. 

Second, we are sparing no effort to develop the robotics industry. Now around 20% of  industrial robots are made in Guangdong. In 2018, the total output of industrial robots reached 32,000 sets, accounting for 22% of the total. In the first quarter of 2019, the output of Topstar Technology Co., Ltd, one of the tech companies that produces industrial robots in Guangdong, generated a year-on-year growth of 36%, maintaining a good momentum. 

Third, we support the new energy automobile industry. I used to work in Shenzhen where we worked to ensure that all buses were powered by electricity within three years. This was also realized in Guangzhou and Zhuhai, which promotes the development of new energy automobiles. The emission of a bus that fueled by diesel is equivalent to that of 40 cars. So the development of new energy automobiles will help to improve the air quality. You can take a look in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, there are now many changes.

Fourth, we promote the development of the industrial internet. Guangdong is a province that based on information. We encourage companies to improve themselves with the help of information technology, especially that of the industrial internet. A total of 3,000 companies now have access to the cloud platform, and that number will reach 10,000 in the future. 

Fifth, we are making efforts to develop the mobile communication industry. The output of smartphones now accounts for 43.9 % of the total output in the country. Most of the mobile phone brands, like Huawei, OPPO, VIVO and Apple, have established their production lines in Guangdong. In addition, we are stepping up the building of the 5G network. This year, we will set up base stations for the commercial use of 5G in Shenzhen.

Generally speaking, high-quality development is the key to building a modern economic system. We also need to give full play to the market and government. In addition, we need to target strategic emerging industries and future industries like artificial intelligence.