MK sport a smartphone maker located in an intelligent industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on December 14, 2023. Photo: Chen Tao/GT" src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2025/2025-02-06/cdbe4a77-c328-456a-83de-9e6fd16301c6.jpeg" />

Workers walk along an assembly line at Honor Device Co, a smartphone maker located in an intelligent industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on December 14, 2023. Photo: Chen Tao/GT

South China's Guangdong Province, an economic powerhouse that accounts for about one-10th of the country's GDP, will accelerate efforts to establish itself as a leading hub for artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics.

The province is prioritizing the two sectors in the drafting of the provincial 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), while rolling out supportive policies, encompassing business support, talent cultivation, and industrial promotion, provincial officials said at a symposium participated by industry insiders and business representatives on Tuesday.

Huang Kunming, Party chief of Guangdong Province, said at the symposium that the province will guide more capital to focus on early and long-term investment in new and high technology, in order to cultivate more AI and robotics pioneers, a statement seen on the provincial government website said on Wednesday. 

Business representatives from major industrial players including Huawei, Moonshot AI, Pony.ai, and Tencent attended the symposium. 

Speaking on the province's advantages in advancing this emerging sector, Huang highlighted its solid foundation of electronic information and advanced manufacturing, leveraging its vast market and diverse application scenarios. 

When it comes to advancing industrial development, Guangdong's governor Wang Weizhong stressed the necessity to reinforce the foundational pillars of computing power, algorithms, and data while delivering cost-effective and high-speed computational services to enterprises. Wang also said to accelerate the adoption and expansion of large AI models across industries, as well as to further promote the open sharing of cross-industry and cross-field data.

In addition, Huang vowed to promote the deep adoption of AI application scenarios in sectors such as manufacturing, education, and healthcare, while accelerating the demonstration and promotion of intelligent robots and core technologies in key scenarios including industrial manufacturing and smart logistics. 

As for cultivating talent, Huang noted that the province will prioritize attracting talent related to AI and robotics with more convenient and preferential measures while enhancing its independent training of talent.  

Guangdong's rich resources are also backed by the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, a significant advantage for the province to deploy AI development, Pan Helin, a member of the Expert Committee for the Information and Communication Economy under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

Pan noted the importance for the province to leverage its advantages in computing power, welcoming more international talent to the province, while making use of the capital strength from the private sector in the province. 

Guangdong's move is part of a broader trend of Chinese localities stepping up efforts to bolster innovation development in cutting-edge innovation and high-quality growth. 

The eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, home to e-commerce giant Alibaba and AI star DeepSeek, has announced a series of measures to shore up its position as a high-level innovation hub, Xinhua News Agency reported on February 10. 

The city will accelerate its construction of facilities and foundational projects such as large-scale language models and computing power infrastructure. More computing power vouchers will also be allocated, Lou Xiuhua, head of Hangzhou's municipal bureau of science and technology, said recently.

Global Times