As of February this year, Hong Kong had invested in nearly 35,000 enterprises in Guangzhou, with total investments reaching nearly 100 billion USD. In turn, Guangzhou had directly invested in and established 1,515 enterprises (institutions) in Hong Kong, with a total contracted investment of 15.37 billion USD. In 2024, the total import-export volume between Guangzhou and Hong Kong reached 86.02 billion yuan, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 32.6%. Additionally, Hong Kong established 2,209 newly invested enterprises in Guangzhou, marking a 3.5% growth.

These figures were revealed at the 2025 Guangzhou-Hong Kong Business Dinner Reception held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on March 31.

As two core cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area sharing cultural and historical ties, Hong Kong has long been a significant partner for Guangzhou in economic, trade, and investment cooperation.

It has been reported that Guangzhou has been rated as the top investment destination in China by the American Chamber of Commerce in South China for eight consecutive years. The city currently hosts over 50,000 foreign-invested enterprises, including 362 Fortune Global 500 companies that have invested in more than 2,000 projects. In 2024, the city saw the establishment of 8,445 new foreign-invested enterprises, with one out of every seven newly established foreign-invested enterprises nationwide based in Guangzhou.

The city has formed six advanced manufacturing clusters, each with output values exceeding 100 billion yuan, and seven service industries with added values exceeding 100 billion yuan each. It is home to 13,500 high-tech enterprises, 21,000 high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises, and 24 unicorn enterprises.

In 2024, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport ranked second in the country in terms of both passenger and cargo throughput. Guangzhou Port ranked fifth and sixth globally in cargo and container throughput, respectively. Meanwhile, the number of high-speed rail services and passenger volume in Guangzhou ranked first nationwide.

Currently, Guangzhou is planning to concentrate resources and efforts over the next five years to vigorously develop one trillion-yuan, four 500-billion-yuan, and four 300-billion-yuan industrial clusters, with the total scale of strategic industrial clusters exceeding 6 trillion yuan.

Cover image | Unsplash