As the manufacturing hub develops a service brain, Qianyi Guicheng's "dual-industry integration" reshapes competitiveness with hundreds of billions

2026 is the launch year of the “15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030)” and also the first year after Foshan’s Nanhai District, Guicheng Subdistrict, stepped into the “hundred-billion-yuan town/subdistrict” club. Standing at a new historical starting point, the central business district of a Greater Bay Area hub city—home to more than 500 headquarters enterprises—faces an exam it must answer: when manufacturing reaches a certain scale, how can the value chain be climbed through service-sector empowerment, enabling services to drive value uplift? From a “manufacturing stronghold” to a “service hub,” Guicheng is laying out a major chess move of “integrating the two sectors.”

Guicheng Subdistrict has joined the ranks of “hundred-billion-yuan towns/subdistricts.”

Breaking the stalemate:

Productive services turn from a “short board” into a “long board”

Walk into Guicheng’s Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Compute Center, and the large screens show that computing power utilization stays steadily above 70%. This nation’s first intelligent compute center built independently at the town/subdistrict level has already carried out concept-proof testing for nearly 10 local manufacturing enterprises such as Jinfeng Technology and Qingyan Technology, becoming the “digital brain” for Foshan’s manufacturing digital transformation.

This is only a snapshot of how Guicheng is making up its shortcomings in productive services. According to the most recently issued “Implementation Opinions of Guicheng Subdistrict on Further Promoting High-Quality Industrial Development,” Guicheng is building an integrated service industry cluster driven by artificial intelligence. The goal is that by 2030, the added value of productive services will account for more than 65% of the added value of the service sector, and that more than 80% of designated above-scale industrial enterprises will carry out technological transformation for the application of artificial intelligence.

On February 9, 2026, Foshan’s AI-enabled digital intelligence service platform construction for traditional manufacturing was officially launched.

“Fresh financial capital” is also delivered with pinpoint precision. Guicheng established the province’s first town/subdistrict-level direct investment fund for scientific and technological innovation, and the nation’s first mechanism for combining investment and loan in parallel. With RMB 100 million leveraged, it draws in five times the amount of social capital. Guicheng Investment Co. issued corporate bonds twice; the coupon rate hit a new national low at the town/subdistrict level, and it also set up a matrix of three major funds—direct investment for tech innovation, Hantian Industrial, and artificial intelligence. With over RMB 50 million in “runway support,” it backs strategic emerging enterprises such as Foyi Technology and Ze Gao Xin. Even more noteworthy is that Guicheng has innovated a “rent-to-equity” model, turning state-owned assets from “landlord” into “shareholder.”

On the transformation side of tech innovation, Guicheng coordinates with platforms including Jihua Laboratory and the research institute of GDUT, and, relying on 100k square meters of property in the Yian Innovation Park, builds a fast lane of “laboratory—pilot testing—industrialization.” In 2025, Guicheng introduced 52 talent teams, a year-on-year increase of more than 30%, bringing the total to 213 teams. Particularly striking is that all five key attack projects under the “Brilliant Action”—Haimuxing, Xinhui Lian, Zhongke Nami, Anhui Yuehao, and Shanghai Dehu—have all settled in Guicheng, accelerating the formation of an industrial clustering momentum.

Leap:

The “service core” behind the headquarters economy

Driving along the intersection of Yuanyuan Road and Guiping Road in Guicheng, towering construction cranes line both sides. This area is known as the city’s “golden cross” where fixed-asset investment in manufacturing headquarters is highest. High-level headquarters such as Hongwang and Haitian have already begun production, while headquarters of weighty enterprises such as Huya and Huanju have just topped off.

But the connotation of the headquarters economy goes far beyond physical clustering. In December 2023, Guangdong Weibang Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Weibang Technology”) officially moved into its headquarters building in the Sanlongwan Science and Technology City in Guicheng. This national-level “Little Giant” enterprise, engaged in elevator human-machine interaction system technology and R&D of AI intelligent hardware, moved from Chancheng to Guicheng 16 years ago. When asked why it chose Guicheng, Deputy General Manager Liu Shulin said plainly: “There is a very good business environment and abundant industrial supporting resources. From discussions on the land demand intention for the company’s intelligent manufacturing project to obtaining this parcel of land, the approval process—before and after—took only about two months.”

Guangdong Weibang Technology Co., Ltd. headquarters building.

Weibang Technology’s growth track is itself a vivid footnote to “integrating the two sectors.” As a supplier to leading international elevator brands such as Hitachi, ThyssenKrupp? (ThyssenKrupp), and Schnell? (Synnex?), Weibang Technology is empowering traditional manufacturing with artificial intelligence. Also located in Nanhai District, Lingwang Elevator Co., Ltd. carries out product iteration and intelligent upgrades through Weibang Technology’s “elevator human-machine interaction system.” And Weibang’s own product innovation is inseparable from support from the local supply chain—some components of the elevator ultraviolet disinfection system come from Nanhai-based enterprise Xuelait Optoelectronics. “Foshan is a strong manufacturing city; especially in Nanhai, you can find most supporting suppliers without going too far,” Liu Shulin said. This collaborative pattern—“R&D in Guicheng, manufacturing in the surrounding areas”—is the deep value of Guicheng’s headquarters economy.

Weibang Technology products—“elevator human-machine interaction system.”

At present, Guicheng has gathered more than 500 headquarters enterprises. Core technology companies such as Xidi Micro and Huazhou are leveraging their industry attraction to drive coordinated clustering across upstream and downstream. According to the plan, over the next five years Guicheng will push the total number of headquarters enterprises to exceed 800; enterprises with output value above RMB 5 billion (in local terms) will reach 10, and those above RMB 1 billion will reach 60. In key areas such as semiconductors and high-end equipment manufacturing, Guicheng will build 2–3 high-end industrial clusters with influence in the Greater Bay Area.

Support:

Talent and state-owned capital build a “fusion ecosystem”

What kind of institutional soil is needed to integrate the two sectors? Guicheng’s answer is: talent and state-owned capital driven by two-wheel force.

In 2025, Guicheng launched the province’s first town/subdistrict-level talent card, put into use a 2,100-square-meter Guicheng Talent Center, and set up a dedicated team for attracting talents and talent intelligence. From solving children’s schooling to providing talent apartments, Guicheng is using “deep-level talent services” to keep key people.

Wang Bowei, founder of Soft Valley Laboratory, is one of the beneficiaries after settling through Guicheng’s talent card. Previously, he had already received multiple talent identifications, including as high-level talent in Guangdong Province, and obtained funding to support an innovative team with a value of tens of millions of RMB. At the time, he faced multiple choices: among the “olive branches” sent by different places, one came from Hefei. His classmate came with a government招商 (investment promotion) task, offering terms that were three times the support funds Foshan provided. But after his classmate followed Wang Bowei to tour Guicheng for two days, when it was time to leave, he said, “I think you can stay here—I already wanted to come.”

Wang Bowei.

What made the classmate “turn back,” was the story of Wang Bowei’s connection with Guicheng over more than a decade. In 2009, an original achievement of his needed pilot testing equipment, but there was no existing equipment found nationwide. A manufacturer in Jiangsu quoted a “sky-high price” of RMB 10 million, with a development cycle of at least one to two years. Wang Bowei gritted his teeth and decided to make it himself. He came to Guicheng, rented a motorcycle, and toured around everywhere. He found that there were a steel market, machine processing plants, and mold factories all available here. He then drew up designs, bought steel, and found processing plants, and ultimately built the equipment for less than RMB 500k—turning it into an item that had been quoted as a ten-million RMB solution by others. Looking back, Wang Bowei was still excited: “The atmosphere for technical research here isn’t the best, but for transforming results into outcomes and for industrialization, this place is really very good.” Since then, he moved the laboratory to Guicheng.

From being alone in Guicheng to developing to today’s lab of more than 70 people. Soft Valley Laboratory’s products have also obtained 78 authorized patents across countries including China, the US, and Australia/ Vietnam etc., and Guicheng has established an incubation platform, a pilot testing platform, and two companies. At the same time, through joint construction with universities, central state-owned enterprises, and hospitals, six joint laboratories have been built; the projects incubated are distributed across the country. This Spring Festival, Soft Valley Materials Laboratory’s ACF shoe inserts appeared on the Spring Festival Gala, and it received a thank-you letter from the China Central Television (CCTV) headquarters; the Unitree Robotics robot also purchased its materials before the holiday for high-intensity performances during the Spring Festival.

ACF shoe inserts from Soft Valley Materials Laboratory.

“I’ve run around many places, but nothing is better than what Guicheng does.” Wang Bowei said. In his view, Guicheng is “thoughtful and proactive”—proactively delivering policies to your doorstep, asking what you need, and resolving difficulties. Here, it not only lets you settle in, but also lets you feel at ease; Guicheng has truly done, “As long as the enterprise has ideas, Guicheng will definitely have a way.”

Letting talent “come in” is only the first step; what matters is getting them to “stay, grow, and get bigger.” Behind this is inseparable from state-owned capital playing the role of “long-term capital.” It innovates the “rent-to-equity” model and accompanies enterprise growth with real money. Specialized operation of state-owned capital vehicles over 650k square meters: Hantian Technology City builds an AI incubation base, and Yian Innovation Park lays out emerging industries. State-owned capital is exploring “mixed-ownership reform enabling + diversified development,” operating featured cultural and tourism projects such as the Whisky Culture Street and Qian Denghu Music Show venue, and cultivating new growth points in consumption. Even more worth looking forward to is the newly introduced “Eight Articles on Qianyi Guicheng Empowering Enterprises for High-Quality Development.” Focusing on dimensions such as financial support, tech transformation, and talent housing/settlement, it offers end-to-end empowerment measures to enterprises and talents across the globe.

From a “manufacturing stronghold” to a “service hub,” Guicheng’s exploration provides a vivid town-level sample for Foshan’s coordinated development of “manufacturing + services.” Standing at the new Qianyi starting point, this Greater Bay Area hub-city central business district is reshaping core competitiveness through integrating the two sectors, contributing Guicheng’s responsibility to “recreate a new Foshan.”

Edited and written by: Nandu N Video reporter Zheng Yuxiao