With continuous efforts to improve the urban and business environment and encourage innovation, Guangzhou is becoming a highland for industries with global competitiveness and influence, business insiders said.

As one of its latest moves, the city hammered out 20 new measures earlier this year to boost high-quality development of foreign investments, encouraging more foreign investors to get involved in Guangzhou's strategic industries ranging over new generation IT, artificial intelligence, new energy vehicles, advanced equipment, biomedicine and health, new materials and fine chemicals, while promising to simplify administrative procedures and to guarantee entire-process service for foreign investors.

The new measures also include financial supports to foreign-funded projects, which marks the first time that the city government has earmarked budget for that purpose.

Feng Shihan, president of Thermo Fisher Scientific China, a scientific instrument manufacturer, said that biopharmaceuticals are among the strategic emerging industries Guangzhou is cultivating. With constant investment in the industry, Guangzhou is accelerating its pace to become a national center for new drug innovation and a hub for world-class biopharmaceutical companies.

A bird's-eye view of an AI and digital economy experimental zone and the complex of Canton Fair in Pazhou, Guangzhou. CHINA DAILY

In September 2022, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced it would establish a production base in Guangzhou.

This base, which is planned to cover approximately 16,000 square meters, will include research and development and manufacturing centers for life sciences and biopharmaceutical reagents, as well as a manufacturing base for scientific instruments.

The United Kingdom-based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca inaugurated its South China regional headquarters in Guangzhou in August 2022. Wang Lei, its executive vice-president, said the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, in which Guangzhou is considered a hub, is becoming a promising pharmaceutical market.

According to Wang, the city boasts a pleasant policy environment for the biopharmaceutical and health industries. AstraZeneca hopes to take advantage of such advantages and the talent policies of Guangzhou Nansha to attract more high-quality resources for its innovation and development.

Consumer products giant Procter& Gamble, which launched operations in Guangzhou 35 years ago, regards the city as the base of its development in China, according to the company.

In recent years, the company has increased its investment in a bid to establish multiple projects. They include a digital innovation center with a total investment of $100 million and two new intelligent manufacturing centers with an investment of 600 million yuan ($87.4 million).

Qiu Zhongqiang, senior vice-president of P&G Global, said that Guangzhou has been at the forefront of China's reform and opening-up for a long time: its market has a high level of maturity; its industrial chains of physical economy are complete and the location's advantages are obvious.

In recent years, the city has introduced many policies that benefit investors; moreover, the Guangzhou government has a forward-looking service awareness toward enterprises, which is a boon in the field of business environment construction and has boosted the confidence of enterprises, Qiu said.

HTWO Guangzhou — carmaker Hyundai Motor's first overseas hydrogen fuel cell R&D, production and sales base — opened in Guangzhou in early 2021. The base covers an area of 202,000 sq m and it plans to invest a total of 8.5 billion yuan.

As early as 2019, Guangzhou launched plans to become a hydrogen energy pilot area. As the first overseas hydrogen fuel cell project, HTWO Guangzhou is optimistic about the development of the industry in the city.

Kim Ihnkee, vice-president of HTWO Guangzhou, said that the project has received strong support from the government since its registration. The project has been completed and is now at the trial production stage. The company hopes to cooperate with more local companies in the future.

Tokyo-based Lawson is a global leading convenience store franchise chain. It set up its Bay Area headquarters in Guangzhou in 2022 and aims to expand the number of its outlets in the area to 1,500 by 2028. Motonobu Miyake, CEO of Lawson (China) Holdings, said that Guangzhou, with a huge population, has a strong consumption capacity and well-developed commerce. Its catering industry is also distinctive and popular.

With an excellent business environment and dynamic market, Guangzhou is becoming an interesting and challenging city, he noted.