Guangdong province will scale up efforts to nurture future industries, focusing on seven key sectors, such as artificial intelligence, life and health, and energy, in the months ahead.

Wu Shiwen, deputy head of the Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission, said the provincial government has formulated and issued an action plan for accelerating the cultivation and development of future industries and strengthening provincial-level overall planning for future industry layout and development.

In particular, Guangdong will boost the development of AI and intelligent robotics industries, striving to seize new industrial tracks and secure a leading edge in emerging and innovation sectors.

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Guangdong's core AI industries exceeded 300 billion yuan ($44.16 billion) in scale last year, increasing 40 percent year-on-year and accounting for roughly a quarter of the country's total — making the province a major leader among peers, Wu said.

Guangdong, a major innovation hub, is home to 74,000 high-tech enterprises and 56,000 registered technology-based small and-medium-sized enterprises.

A host of leading tech giants, such as Huawei, Tencent, Midea and DJI, are settled in Guangdong, he said.

Guangdong has built a multi-tier laboratory system led by the Pengcheng and Guangzhou national-level laboratories and supported by 24 provincial-level laboratories, 26 national key laboratories, and 35 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao joint laboratories, Wu said.

Wu said Guangdong would continue strengthening science and technology innovation to support the development of emerging and innovative industries in the years ahead.

Wu Dongwen, deputy head of Guangdong provincial department of industry and information technology, said the province's manufacturing sector has kept advancing toward high-end, intelligent transformation, with new industries and business models emerging rapidly in recent years.

Guangdong has mass-production lines for Xpeng AeroHT's flying cars, G8.6 printed OLED displays and triple-foldable smartphones, said Wu from the industry and information technology department.

"These world-class advanced manufacturing lines leverage Guangdong's complete industrial chain and robust innovation ecosystem, driving continuous translation of scientific and technological breakthroughs from laboratories to end-user markets," he said.

Last year, Guangdong's added value of 20 industrial clusters accounted for 31.7 percent of the province's GDP, forming 10 trillion-yuan-level industrial clusters.

Chen Yushan, deputy director of Guangdong Institute of Science and Technology Information, said Guangdong's core technology strengths lie in differentiated complementarity and full-chain collaboration as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area deepens integration of scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation and accelerates the development of new quality productive forces.

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Unlike other international science and technology innovation hubs, the GBA boasts the unique institutional advantage of "one country, two systems", featuring complementary strengths and cross-border collaboration.

Hong Kong and Macao are home to many top-tier universities and research platforms, excelling in basic research, frontier exploration and international connectivity, while Guangzhou and Shenzhen host a concentration of universities and major research institutes with abundant science and education resources, Chen said.

"The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou and Macao-Zhuhai innovation clusters are ranked among the world's top 100, becoming the best testament to effective cross-regional synergy across the three regions," he said.

zhengcaixiong@chinadaily.com.cn