On February 25, the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee and the People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality held the city-wide High-Quality Development Conference. The conference thoroughly studied and implemented General Secretary Xi Jinping’s series of important speeches and instructions on Guangdong and Guangzhou, earnestly implemented the deployment requirements of the provincial High-Quality Development Conference, adhered to the simultaneous development of industry and commerce, promoted the deep integration and coordinated development of manufacturing and service industries, accelerated the building of a modern industrial system with international competitiveness, and strived to achieve accelerated development and new achievements during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. This is the fourth consecutive year that our city has held the "First Conference of the Spring Festival" after the Lunar New Year, with live broadcast across the city. The following is the full text of the speech delivered by Feng Zhonghua, Secretary of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee, at the conference:

Speech at the City-Wide High-Quality Development Conference

(February 25, 2026)

Feng Zhonghua

Distinguished guests, comrades, and friends,

The spring breeze surges to spur progress; ten thousand horses gallop to embark on a new journey. Yesterday, the provincial High-Quality Development Conference was held as scheduled. Secretary Huang Kunming led us to deeply study and comprehend Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, deployed the promotion of coordinated development between manufacturing and service industries, and struck a powerful note of the times for high-quality development. Today, we hold this conference to mobilize the entire city to strengthen confidence, boost morale, resolutely implement the spirit of the provincial High-Quality Development Conference, especially the requirements of Secretary Huang Kunming’s speech, strive to promote the simultaneous development of industry and commerce and the integration of the two industries, accelerate the building of a modern industrial system with international competitiveness, and achieve accelerated development and new achievements during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

At the beginning of the Spring Festival, Guangzhou is full of vitality and enthusiasm everywhere. During the Spring Festival holiday, the city received over 20 million tourists, with cultural and tourism consumption exceeding 20 billion yuan, an increase of 9.3% and 11.6% respectively, ranking among the top domestic popular destinations. Guangzhou South Railway Station recorded the highest passenger flow nationwide, and Baiyun International Airport became the first airport in China to handle over 5 million passengers during the Spring Festival travel rush, repeatedly setting new records for single-day passenger throughput. From the Xihu Road Flower Market to the blooming flower sea across the city, from the White Goose Pond fireworks show to the Nansha "Super Lantern Festival", "Celebrate the New Year in Guangzhou, Enjoy Flowers in the Flower City" was a splendid experience, leaving beautiful memories for all citizens and tourists from all directions.

Meanwhile, more than 1,700 key enterprises and over 1,100 key projects across the city continued construction and production without interruption during the Spring Festival and resumed work ahead of schedule. Starting from the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, five free return-to-work special trains have been launched, enabling migrant workers to conveniently and comfortably go from home to the factory. The whole city is bustling with efforts in construction, production, and shipment, presenting a thriving scene of sprinting at the start and exerting full efforts throughout the year. On behalf of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee and the People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality, I extend sincere greetings and heartfelt thanks to all of you present, the people of the city, comrades who stuck to their posts during the holiday, and all friends who care about, support, and participate in Guangzhou’s modernization drive.

Time never fades; the ancient city is always renewing. With a history of 2,240 years since its founding and 1,800 years since its naming, Guangzhou has never changed its city site, never broken its cultural context, and never lost its vitality, occupying an important position in the urban landscape of China and even the world. General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to and places high hopes on Guangzhou, fully affirming its historical contributions and strategic status from three time dimensions: over 1,000 years ago, over 100 years ago, and over 40 years ago.

Over 1,000 years ago, Guangzhou was already a starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, launching the process of "connecting the world and trading goods globally" from here, which has never been interrupted despite wind and rain. As a millennium commercial capital, it has led the trend and stood at the forefront of the times. Over 100 years ago, it was here that the door to China’s modern progress was opened, giving birth to the country’s first diesel engine, the most advanced paper mill, textile factory, etc., shouldering the banner of modern national industry. Over 40 years ago, it was also here that the path of special economic zone construction was first explored, taking the lead in reform and opening-up, establishing the first "three-capital" enterprises, giving birth to the first batch of self-employed individuals, and setting up the first Sino-foreign cooperative hotel, the White Swan Hotel. Starting from "processing with supplied materials, assembling with supplied parts, processing according to supplied samples, and compensation trade", it extended to both ends of the "smile curve" of the value chain, and then evolved into a city of smart vehicles, a capital of display technology, and a capital of customization, with industries continuously iterating and upgrading.

Throughout its history, Guangzhou has prospered through commerce and thrived through industry. The spirit of reform, opening-up, and innovation is engraved in the city’s genes, and the interactive integration and coordinated evolution of industry and commerce have become deeply rooted in the city’s blood, forming the most distinctive hallmark of this millennium ancient city.

Entering the new era, General Secretary Xi Jinping has entrusted Guangzhou with the mission of revitalizing an old city with new vitality and achieving "four new breakthroughs and brilliance", hoping that Guangzhou will continue to play a leading and driving role in high-quality development, and that this timeless city will demonstrate the vitality and charm of socialism with Chinese characteristics through new and greater development.

We have kept in mind the General Secretary’s earnest instructions and forged ahead with gratitude. Adhering to the real economy as the foundation, we have fully promoted industrial transformation and upgrading, with industrial investment growing at an average annual rate of over 10%. The total output value of the secondary industry exceeded 3.3 trillion yuan, and the revenue of service enterprises above designated size exceeded 2 trillion yuan. The proportion of advanced manufacturing in industry and producer services in services have both risen to about 60%. The "integration of two industries" of advanced manufacturing and modern services, and the "dual efforts" of traditional and emerging industries have strongly supported the momentum of economic recovery and growth. The economic aggregate has exceeded 3.8 trillion yuan, with over 38,000 enterprises including Douyin and Vipshop, making it a highland for digital economic development.

Next, we will further optimize the industrial spatial layout. The central urban area will focus on developing headquarters economy and digital economy; the peripheral urban areas will focus on intelligent manufacturing economy and innovative economy; areas around transportation hubs will focus on airport economy and port economy; and the northern mountainous areas will focus on green economy and cultural tourism economy. We will fully build the Pearl River High-Quality Development Belt and construct a 100-kilometer vibrant innovation axis running north-south, promoting the "one belt and one axis" to form a chain and gather momentum. We will promote strong alliances between eastern manufacturing and Tianhe services, and between university town innovation and Nansha manufacturing, building a highland for advanced manufacturing and a center for producer services. We will implement an annual plan to add 10,000 mu of industrial land, creating more leading industrial clusters and pillar industrial parks. We will build a golden platform to attract outstanding talents and enterprises.

We will attract high-quality projects extensively, improve the quality and efficiency of investment promotion, and build the "Invest in Guangzhou" brand. Guangzhou adheres to the close combination of investment in physical assets and investment in people. Anchoring the trillion-yuan fixed asset investment target, we have planned and reserved a large number of projects, which will bring abundant business opportunities to enterprises. The CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee and the People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality have decided to designate 2026 as the Year of Investment Promotion, launching a year-round, city-wide investment promotion campaign.

Next, we will open wider doors to social capital and outstanding enterprises, coordinate high-quality resources to carry out industrial chain investment promotion, scenario-based investment promotion, and targeted investment promotion, striving to introduce no less than 10 projects of 10 billion yuan, 100 projects of 1 billion yuan, and 1,000 projects of 100 million yuan. We will improve the promotion mechanism for major projects, optimize approval processes, increase the supply of water, electricity, gas, computing power and other factors, strengthen the coordination between finance and fiscal policies, accelerate the construction of ongoing projects, ensure new projects start as early as possible, and speed up the capital increase and production expansion of 100 projects worth over 100 million yuan, enabling investments to bear fruit and generate returns at an early date.

We will gather talents from all over the world, create a first-class environment, and foster outstanding enterprises. Since the reform and opening-up, people from all over the country have gathered in Guangzhou with dreams of a better life, leaving millions of footprints of struggle. Many successful entrepreneurs studied and started businesses in Guangzhou. They also experienced difficulties in their first ventures, but with government support, they overcame hardships and achieved today’s success. Not long ago, the song "Jiahewanggang" resonated emotionally and triggered collective memories among countless "Guangzhou drifters". It can be said that Guangzhou has always been a city that embraces entrepreneurs and warms the hearts of strivers.

Next, guided by enhancing enterprises’ sense of gain, we will deepen the "industrial version" of business environment reform, strengthen institutional supply for new tracks and fields, support the development of state-owned, private, and foreign-funded enterprises equally, truly treat enterprises’ affairs as our own, and solidly carry out the "Visit Ten Thousand Enterprises to Solve Problems" campaign. We will respond promptly to solve enterprises’ "worries" such as market access, financing, and payment collection.

Guided by enhancing citizens’ sense of happiness, we will build a high-standard international landscape garden city, deeply implement the "Hundred, Thousand, Ten Thousand Project", carry out high-quality urban renewal and urban village renovation, implement the Guangzhou Action of "Million Talents Gathering in Southern Guangdong", vigorously promote the expansion of high-quality school places by schools such as Hua Fu and Guangdong Experimental High School, and continuously optimize public services including education, medical care, childcare, and elderly care. We will strive to enable all strivers to achieve their careers and harvest happiness in a livable and business-friendly environment!

Comrades and friends, the Pearl River surges, sailing forward with courage; Baiyun Mountain stands tall, passing on the torch. Embarking on a new journey, we have defined the strategic tasks for the next five years and envisioned the long-term goals for 2035. By then, the historical city and the modern city will complement each other, the comprehensive abundance of material goods and the all-round development of people will shine together, and a central world city with classic charm and contemporary vitality will be presented to the world.

The blueprint has been drawn, and the journey inspires us to forge ahead. We will boost the spirit of "daring to be the first and striving for the top", fully activate the three driving forces of reform, opening-up, and innovation, work hard and pragmatically, and unite as one to continuously create new prospects for high-quality development. The whole city must transform its work style, improve its capabilities, dare to act and excel, make friends with entrepreneurs, and provide good services for enterprise development. Here, we sincerely invite entrepreneurs, scientific and educational workers, and investors from all over the world to walk with Guangzhou and the times, and jointly write a new chapter of "With such grand momentum, it has always been Guangzhou".

Comrades and friends, Guangzhou’s history is a history of daring to explore and striving for the first. Its future will continue to shine with unremitting reform and opening-up. In the new year, we will strive to make cadres work harder, development faster, quality higher, structure better, and foundation stronger.

Let us unite more closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, strengthen confidence, boost morale, go all out to pursue development, and forge ahead bravely in our undertakings. We will continue to play a leading and driving role in high-quality development and make new and greater contributions to the province’s efforts to stand at the forefront in advancing Chinese-style modernization!

Finally, I wish you all immediate success, prosperous careers, and happy families! Thank you!

Source: Guangzhou Daily