Guangdong to invest in AI, robotics industries

Guangdong province in South China has indicated that it will spare no effort in developing the two major industries of artificial intelligence and robotics, establishing new pillars of high-tech, high growth and large-scale industries in 2025.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said the province will also accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system supported by an advanced manufacturing industry to promote its high-quality development this year.

Huang, also Party secretary of Guangdong, made his remarks at the opening ceremony of the Guangdong Provincial High-Quality Development Conference in Guangdong's provincial capital on Wednesday, the first working day following the Spring Festival holiday.

He urged relevant departments and cities to seize and make good use of all favorable conditions to transform positive factors into development achievements and build a modern industrial system with more international competitiveness to support the construction of a prosperous and dynamic new Guangdong with abundant economic and social vitality in the months to come.

According to Huang, Guangdong has a wide range of manufacturing industries, including traditional, emerging and future sectors, as well as advanced manufacturing and modern services in Guangzhou, technological innovation and high-tech industries in Shenzhen, smart home appliances in Foshan and smart terminals in Dongguan.

This integration has resulted in the development of eight industrial clusters, each valued at 1 trillion yuan ($137.53 billion).

Wang Weizhong, governor of Guangdong, said his province will spare no effort to create a market-oriented, rule by law, internationalized and first-class business environment to accelerate the construction of world-class enterprise clusters in 2025 to promote the province's high-quality development.

Liang Hua, chairman of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, said Huawei regards high quality as the cornerstone of its survival and development, with a strategic focus on winning through quality.

"External uncertainty remains significant, but the development trend toward digitization, intelligence and low-carbon is certain," said Liang.

Huawei will continue to increase strategic investments and bring better products and services to global customers, he said.

According to Liang, relying on its high quality, Huawei's sales revenue exceeded 860 billion yuan in 2024, despite a year full of challenges.

Fang Hongbo, chairman of Midea Group Co Ltd, said Midea's robot and automation business revenue has exceeded 30 billion yuan, and its products have achieved full coverage from core components to complete machines, from hardware equipment to systems, becoming one of the top four industrial robot manufacturing enterprises in the world.

"Midea is committed to promoting the localization, digitization and intelligence of robot manufacturing," he said.

Midea-Kuka intelligent manufacturing technological park, located in Foshan's Shunde district, has become the largest industrial robot production base in China, with a cumulative production and delivery of more than 80,000 industrial robots.

The park, which has the first fully automated production line of "robots producing robots" in Guangdong, can work 24 hours a day without interruption. The entire production line is composed of Midea robots.

"On average, robots can now produce a new robot in 30 minutes, creating a benchmark for intelligent manufacturing of industrial robots," said Fang. "Midea Robotics focuses on the needs and characteristics of Chinese manufacturing, continuously developing more application scenarios. Its products are widely used in industries, including automotives, aerospace, electronics, consumer goods, logistics, e-commerce and healthcare."