(Yicai) Feb. 19 -- Guangdong, China’s largest provincial-level economy, will focus on high-quality, innovation-driven development this year.

Guangdong will treasure talents, work hard with enterprises, launch a new batch of major scientific research projects, promote technical reforms at 9,000 industrial enterprises, and drive digitalization at 9,200 industrial firms above designated size, Huang Kunming, the Chinese southern province’s party secretary, said yesterday at the first government meeting in the Chinese New Year of the Dragon.

This year, Guangdong will strive to add about 10 new national and provincial innovation platforms and record at least 2,000 innovative achievements, Zhu Kongjun, head of the province’s education department, said at the meeting.

Guangdong will launch a batch of flagship projects in the chip, software, display equipment, new energy storage, and marine technology sectors and apply cutting-edge technologies to the artificial intelligence, brain science, and quantum technology industries, said Gong Guoping, an official at the province’s science and technology department.

Guangdong’s gross domestic product exceeded CNY13 trillion (USD1.8 trillion) last year, forming eight industrial clusters with a scale of at least CNY1 trillion (USD139 billion) each, with over 18 million business entities, 75,000 high-tech firms, 900,000 high-level talents, 127 million permanent residents, and about 150 million residents, Huang noted.

The province’s research and development expenditure exceeded CNY460 billion (USD63.9 billion) last year, Huang added. Its major science and technology indicators, such as the number of R&D personnel, invention patents, international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, and high-tech enterprises, all ranked first in China.

Guangdong produced 2.5 million new energy vehicles last year, meaning that one in every four NEVs made in China were produced in the southern province, Wang Chuanfu, chairman and president of Chinese electric carmaker BYD, said at the meeting.

In addition to Guangdong, other Chinese provincial regions held similar meetings yesterday. Shandong province focused on opening-up and investment, Anhui province, Shanghai, and Liaoning province pledged to create a first-class business environment and make more efforts to promote the private economy this year.

Editor: Futura Costaglione