A breakthrough in integrated development of sci-tech and industrial innovation in China's Guangdong province has seen the number of the region's high-tech enterprises reach 74,000, driving the province's rise as a global tech and manufacturing hub.

Since March, Guangdong has rolled out a batch of policy packages to boost this innovation. The moves, focused on four-chain integration, new quality productive forces cultivation and building a globally influential industrial sci-tech innovation hub, will deliver strong impetus to the province's high-quality development.

Breakthroughs in core technologies

In the exhibition hall of Chaozhou Three-Circle (Group) Co., Ltd. in east Guangdong, a multilayer ceramic chip capacitor (MLCC), widely dubbed "the rice of the electronics industry," takes a prominent position.

It is built on local independent innovation achievements, and has successfully reduced the thickness of its dielectric layers from five microns to less than one micron, while also managing high-precision stacking of up to 1,000 layers.

In recent years, the company has triumphed over several technical hurdles and enhanced its core competitiveness. It has secured major breakthroughs in both high-end electronic components and ceramic fuel cells for new energy products.

Under the "Strong Chip" initiative, Kirin high-end chips have achieved full end-to-end integration from design to manufacturing, with multiple automotive chips producing domestic substitution. In addition, the native HarmonyOS operating system has now also entered full commercial operation.

Leadership of innovation entities

Guangzhou MINO Equipment Co., Ltd., founded in 2008, began its journey as a technical service business with just two employees.

After a decade of technology development, the company built China's first non-standard, intelligent, flexible manufacturing production line. It also developed an intelligent industrial big data analysis and diagnosis platform for automotive production lines.

At MINO, engineers keep a close eye on screens, remotely debugging production lines at overseas factories. Today, one in every 10 new energy vehicles worldwide benefits from the solutions developed by the company.

This is just the tip of the iceberg among Guangdong's vast pool of outstanding tech enterprises. Shenzhen, a leading tech hub in southern China, is home to global industry leaders including Huawei, BYD, Tencent and DJI. It has also developed many promising cutting-edge enterprises, with 26,000 national high-tech enterprises.

Across the entire province, the number of technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises stands at 56,000. Roughly 90 percent of Guangdong's scientific research institutions, 90 percent of its R&D personnel and funding, and 90 percent of its invention patent applications come from enterprises.

Transformation of R&D achievements

In 2002, a leading seed base of aquatic products under a national high-tech development plan was built on Donghai Island, Zhanjiang city in western Guangdong.

The base partnered with Sun Yat-sen University for a decade of dedicated research. In 2011, it succeeded in breeding "Zhongxing No. 1," China's first disease-resistant strain of Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei).

It has since become a landmark brand in China's Pacific white shrimp farming sector. In 2025, the annual sales of this shrimp fry doubled year-on-year. Its national breeding success rate has since reached as high as 85 percent.

Guangdong has long prioritized transforming lab samples into production-line products and translating researchers' academic findings into tangible business outcomes. The province continues to conduct in-depth research, and has taken targeted measures to develop this critical job of commercializing scientific and technological achievements.