Huizhou, a coastal metropolis known as both the Gateway to Eastern Guangdong and as the Preeminent City in the Lingnan Region, lies in the southeast of Guangdong. It extends across an area of 11,200 sq. km and, as of the end of 2017, its permanent population stood at 4.777 million. The city’s port is one of the busiest on Guangdong’s eastern coast and, in 2017, it had a registered cargo throughput of 59.69 million tons. Huizhou is numbered among China’s Top Ten Green Cities, while also having been designated as a Global Tourism Demonstration Zone and as one of the country’s Famous Historical and Cultural Cities.
Major Development Areas
National level: Daya Bay Economic and Technological Development Zone, and Huizhou Zhongkai High-Tech Industrial Development Zone
Provincial level: Daya Bay Petrochemical Industrial Park, Huizhou Industrial Park, etc.
Positioning
Electronic information and petrochemicals are pillar industries of Huizhou. Together with automotive and equipment manufacturing as well as clean energy industries, they form the modern industrial system of Huizhou. The Daya Bay Petrochemical Zone has reached oil refining capacity of 22 million tons/year and ethylene production capacity of 2.2 million tons/year, ranking the first in the country in terms of the scale of petrochemical-refining integration. For five consecutive years, it ranked the top 20 among chemical industrial parks of the country. The Huizhou Zhongkai Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone is the country’s first national electronic information industrial base, with relatively complete supply chains of mobile communications, panel display, automotive electronics, LED and new energy. Huizhou is the country’s production base for women’s shoes and is famous for menswear. It is also an important production base for clean energy.
Core Competencies
Huizhou’s two pillar industries are petrochemicals and electronic information, which together account for 59% of the output (in value-added terms) of all industrial enterprises above a designated size. As part of its 13th Five-Year Plan(2016-2020), the city has committed itself to three economic priorities – establishing itself as a petrochemical industrial base, a national electronic information industrial base and an LED production base. In terms of pillar industries, it is planning to nurture the automotive, equipment manufacturing and clean energy sectors over the next five years.
During the course of the city’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), the value added by Huizhou’s marine industry grew at an average rate of more than 20% per annum. Looking to build on this, the 13th Five-year Plan sets out to priorities the further development of the city’s blue economy, primarily through the scientific utilization of local marine resources and by fostering the growth of the marine organism pharmaceutical industry.
Over recent years, Huizhou has accelerated its level of high-tech R&D activity, particularly with regard to internet-related innovations, cloud computing, intelligent robotics, 3D printing and work related to the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, China’s own take on the GPS system. Within the Zhongkai High-tech Zone, two industrial clusters have also been established – cloud computing and intelligent terminals. In terms of energy generation, a number of the city’s enterprises have looked to take a lead in solar photovoltaics, offshore wind power and nuclear power. This is in line with Huizhou’s commitment to establishing itself as one of Guangdong’s primary clean energy production centres and as a global supplier of high-energy green batteries.
In terms of the local services sector, the focus has been on developing the port and aviation logistics industries, with the ultimate aim of acting as a logistics hub for the whole of the Eastern Guangdong, Southern Jiangxi and Western Fujian areas. The 13th Five-year Plan also emphasises the importance of strengthening financial co-operation with Hong Kong and Shenzhen. It is anticipated that this will be achieved by undertaking outsourced work for the two neighbouring cities, particularly with regard to financial projects, logistics support and technology services.
In terms of tourism resources, Huizhou is looking to establish three major tourism clusters – the Renping Peninsula Tourism Economic Zone, Huizhou Municipal Tourist Centre and Mount Luofu-Mount Nankun Tourism Economic Co-operation Zone. The city is also committed to developing a range of competitive tourism services, including coastal, hot spring health and rural tours.