Guangzhou has ranked first in Forbes Magazine's "Chinese Best Business Cities” five times the last six years. A survey conducted by AmCham South China found that 60% of surveyed enterprises chose to locate their Southern China headquarters in this city — Guangzhou’s highest percentage in the past three years. Among them, 93% have already gained or will gain profits within two years. This string of upbeat figures demonstrates the vitality of this old business city, which relies on the following six factors to continue attracting talent.
Industrial Foundation
Guangzhou’s GDP totaled 1810 billion yuan last year, while its economic aggregate has ranked third among China’s cities for 27 consecutive years. Thus far, 283 of Fortune 500 companies have invested in 720 projects in Guangzhou. China’s 13th Five-Year Plan predicts Guangzhou’s GDP will total 2800 billion yuan by 2020, and the average annual growth rate will reach 7.5%.
Business Costs
Guangzhou alleviated the burdens of enterprises by 49.5 billion RMB last year through tax abatement and reductions in other costs. Enterprises that invest in Guangzhou enjoy the benefit of comparatively low comprehensive business costs.The latest statistics compiled by Jones Lang LaSalle, a leading real estate company, show the average rent last year for offices is 160 yuan per square meter per month, which is 43.5% of the cost in Beijing, 52.1% in Shanghai and 65.5% of the cost in Shenzhen. In terms of labor costs, Guangzhou’s average salary ranks fourth behind Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. What’s more, housing prices in the city are 54% of those in Shenzhen, 55% in Beijing and 61% in Shanghai.
Human Resources
Guangzhou is home to two-thirds of Guangdong’s colleges and universities and 97% of national key disciplines and all national key laboratories. Six Nobel Laureates and 77 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering worked in Guangzhou last year. Guangzhou promotes vigorous and innovative development of its central city and gives a subsidy of up to 5 million yuan at a time to prominent talent. Top-level talent each can receive a reward of up to 1.5 million yuan based on their contributions to Guangzhou during the year.
Policies
The new Guangdong experimental Free Trade Area-Nansha district geared itself to international standards last year, ahead of other free trade zones. So far, 170 foreign companies — involving such domains as trade, investment, finance leasing, logistics, biology and technology — have completed investment filings. Registered capital reached 15.5 billion yuan. Last month Guangzhou became a pilot city for trade innovation, allowing investors to enjoy a corporate income tax rate of 15%.
Government Service
Guangzhou is committed to creating a marketized, law-abiding international business environment and continuously promotes convenience for investment. For example, the city has cut the days needed to get approval for investors to three days, increasing the speed by 85%. Guangzhou also has substantially streamlined the process of examining and approving 191 products.
Living Environment
Guangzhou is one of the three largest comprehensive transportation hubs in China and the largest hub in Southern China for aviation, railways, highways, shipping and information. It takes only one hour to reach nine other cities in the Pearl River Delta and two hours to travel by car to Hong Kong and Macau. Guangzhou has raised citizens’ living standard by creating a cleaner and more orderly city environment. Its air quality was the best among five central cities in China last year, as 312 days met air-quality standards, a jump of 30 days over 2014.
