On December 7, the land of Huaqiao Sugar Factory in Baiyun district was successfully sold in Guangzhou Public Resources Trading Center. The buyer was Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Located in the west of Baiyun district, Huaqiao Sugar Factory is close to the Songxi Station (松溪站) on Guangzhou Metro Line 13 (under construction) and three main urban roads, including Northern Ring Expressway, Guangzhou-Qingyuan Expressway, and Inner Ring Road. In the future, the land will be used to build a Huawei Research & Development Center.

As a leading provider of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart terminals, Huawei has the world's largest research and development team, with 96,000 of 200,000 employees being research personnel. In 2020, even under external pressure, Huawei's R&D investment still grew to a scale of US$ 20 billion.

What is Guangzhou's most attractive point to Huawei?

Currently, Guangzhou is focusing on artificial intelligence and digital economy, accelerating digital industrialization and industrial digitization as well as promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. Meanwhile, it is actively deploying new infrastructure construction such as 5G, data center, artificial intelligence, internet of things and industrial internet.

Guangzhou is also the center of higher education in South China, occupying 97% of the national key disciplines with all national key laboratories in Guangdong Province. Over the years, it has sent a large number of talents to Huawei.

What does Huawei R&D Center mean to Guangzhou?

The simplest and direct benefit will be the growth of Guangzhou’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 2017, China’s National Bureau of Statistics officially clarified that R&D expenditures will be included in regional GDP accounting, which means as long as the Huawei R&D Center operates in the future, it will increase Guangzhou’s GDP directly.

Additionally, Huawei R&D Center will be engaged in research of smart cars, cloud computing and the internet of things and accelerate the widespread application of ICT technology in various industries in southern China. Some experts believe that this new R&D Center will have a strong industry driving and agglomeration effect, attracting high-associated enterprises and research institutions in the upstream and downstream of the industry, so that a complete ecological chain can be formed.

On November 2, Hou Jinlong, senior vice president of Huawei, said at the Huawei Guangzhou City Summit (2020) that facing the future, Huawei will inject new momentum into Guangzhou's urban development.