About Guangdong Financial High-tech Zone

Approved by People's Government of Guangdong province, Guangdong High-Tech Service Zone for Financial Institutions (hereafter referred to the Zone) was established in July 2007. According to "Outline of the Reform and Development of the Pearl River Delta Region (2008-2020)" and "The Overall Construction Plan of Pearl River Delta Financial Reform and Innovation Comprehensive Pilot Zone of Guangdong", the Zone is positioned as "Financial Back Office Base" and "Industrial Financial Center".

To be more specific, "Financial Back Office Base" is to have the data processing center, call center, disaster recovery center, training center and R&D center of financial institutions settled in, while "Industrial Financial Center" is to have innovative financial service institutions such as PE/VC, Internet finance, financial leasing companies to contribute to the transformation and upgrade of traditional industries and the development of local economy.

1. Introduction

The Zone enjoys advantageous geographic location, locating in the center of Pearl River Delta and near Hong Kong and Macau. The Zone shares the abundant resources of both Guangzhou and Foshan, making it the demonstration zone of high-end service industry cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau. The Zone occupies a planned area of 18 km2 by Thousand Lanterns Lake. It accommodates with an excellent geographic location, convenient traffic, eco-friendly environment, well-planned ancillary facilities and amenities, abundant and qualified talents, well-developed infrastructures for informatization as well as low operation cost.

Transportation Advantage: Located in the center of Guangzhou-Foshan metropolitan circle, it is 35 minutes away from Northern Tianhe, 40 minutes away from Baiyun International Airport and 20 minutes away from Guangzhou South Railway Station by drive. Having Financial High-tech Zone Station, Qiandenghu Lake Station and Leigang Station of Guang-Fo Metro, the first intercity metro in China, the Zone is accessible to downtown of Guangzhou within 40 minutes. In addition, being adjacent to Guangzhou South Railway Station, it is 48 minutes away from West Kowloon Hong Kong, 50 minutes away from Macau by high-speed rail, reaching Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau within 1 hour.

Power Supply: Because of the A-class power grip network, the reliability rate of power supply is 99.999%, with yearly outage being as low as 5.2 minutes. Nationwide, there are only three zones could achieve such high-standard, namely, Pudong of Shanghai, Futian of Shenzhen and the Guangdong High-Tech Service Zone for Financial Institutions of Foshan.

Facilities: Located in the city center, the Zone has perfect infrastructure facilities and excellent living environment. The Zone currently has 4 5-star hotels (Poly Intercontinental, Hilton, Landis and Sunshine International), well-developed residential communities such as Zhonghai, Vanke, China Merchant Land, and shopping malls such as Wanda, Vanke, Tianhecheng Department Store and Ikea. Residential apartments and high-end office buildings such as AIA Financial Center and Chenye Tower, as well as public facilities like Thousand Lanterns Lake, Finance Park, kindergartens, primary schools, middle schools and hospitals are available for employees working in the Zone.

2. Overall Developments

With 10 years of construction and development, by July 2017, there are 364 projects that has come into operation, including PICC Southern Information Center, AIA Finance Center, Fujitsu Data Center, Capgemini BPO Operation Center, KPMG Delivery Center, Kuehne + Nagel Asia-Pacific Delivery Center, driving 50,000 middle-end or high-end workforces to serve the Zone. Now with total construction area for office buildings exceeding 6 million km2, its total investment totals about 70 billion RMB (among which are 202 PE/VC with funds total to over 34.5 billion Yuan) and comes from the USA, the UK, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, H.K. and large-scale financial institutions in mainland China. These projects cover various financial sectors, such as banking, insurance, securities, service outsourcing, PE/VC, financial leasing, Internet finance ect. To date, having become the modern finance industry back office base serving Asia-Pacific area.

3. Major Platforms

In 2010, Financial High-Tech Zone took the lead in promoting the innovative integration of finance, technology and industry while striving for national pilot area for industrial finance. In 2014, Nanhai District of Foshan is accredited as the first "Comprehensive Pilot Zone for Finance, Technology and Industry Integration" in Guangdong. Currently, the Zone has the second civil financial street of Guangdong -- Foshan Civil Financial Street, the third reginal equity exchange in Guangdong -- Guangdong Equity Exchange, and the only roadshow center of Shenzhen Stock Exchange outside of Shenzhen – Quanjinwang (Guangdong) Roadshow center, which are strategic platforms of the integration of finance, technology and industry. Moreover, the Finance, Technology and Industry Integration Forum hosted by the Zone has already become an influential event in the PE/VC industry.

In 2014, with the accreditation of "E-commerce and Internet Finance Innovation Base", the Zone takes on exploring internet finance. In 2015, answering to the call of encouraging people to start their own business and to make innovations, and combining with the "Internet Plus" strategy, the Zone has launched Foshan Financial Street of Popular Innovation and Qiandeng Lake Community for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, to cultivate Internet finance and mobile Internet application industries, to form a financial service chain for early, middle and late stages of starting a business, and to construct a paradise for entrepreneurs. Now the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Community already has incubators, accelerators, angel café, entrepreneur apartments, entrepreneur academy, public service centers and roadshow centers to construct a multi-layer and diversified investing and financing mechanism, providing entrepreneurs with all necessary services.

In 2015, leveraging on reginal cooperation and the well-developed financial service industry base, the Zone has joined hands with Shansan New Town to become the demonstration zone of high-end service industry cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau. The Zone is dedicated to attracting high-end service industries from Hong Kong and Macau and also bringing these back office projects in to the Chinese hinterland, as well as creating a paradise for young Hong Kong and Macau entrepreneurs. The Zone has become one of the 13 "High-end Service Demonstration Area for Co-operation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau".