Favorable innovation environment makes GBA our essential base: Chairman of ABB China

Editor's Note:

Guangdong's annual Two Sessions starts today (January 19), on which the province's achievements in 2021 and goals in 2022 will be released. In these years Guangdong has progressed on Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) development and attracted many Global 500 companies. How do they see the GBA? Now GDToday is launching a special series titled "Global 500 Companies in GBA", inviting senior executives from those with a long history in GBA to share their opinions.

"Firstly importing products, then manufacturing products with imported technologies, and now researching and designing products independently, we have localized our whole value chain in China," said Dr. Chunyuan Gu, Chairman of ABB China, when sharing with GDToday on ABB's benefits from China's development in the past 20 years.

ABB Group is a global leading technology company that has been listed on Global Fortune 500 for many years. Ranging from clean energy, intelligent manufacturing, intelligent transportation to infrastructure projects, the company has been investing in Guangdong since 1995. Starting from Xinhui of Jiangmen and Zhongshan City, ABB has expanded its footprints to GBA's main cities, including its' robotics company in Zhuhai and a new energy technology center in Shenzhen.

"Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is a place with a favorable environment for innovation, supporting policies and tremendous talent, thus making it an essential base for us," said Gu.

Will form high-end industrial clusters with international influence

Intelligent manufacturing is one of ABB's priorities. ABB has established ABB Robotics (Zhuhai) Ltd. in 2015, it has built a public service platform for industrial robot application technology with Zhuhai National High-tech Industrial Development Zone, and provided robot automation technology to XPeng Motors’s Factory in Zhaoqing.

"We believe that the GBA will continue to improve its innovative competitiveness by taking advantage of its strong regional coordination. The place will develop high-end technologies and form high-end industrial clusters with international influence," said Gu.

Gu pointed out that Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macao have strong basic research capabilities to cultivate and export innovative talent with many universities and research institutions.

Meanwhile, Gu stressed that Shenzhen has many internationally-influential enterprises in emerging industries such as artificial intelligence and biological medicine, which have become innovation hubs. In 2019, ABB set up an open innovation center in Shenzhen to cooperate with universities, design institutes, and other institutions to innovate technology and a cooperational mode. Partnering with Huawei, it also offers ABB Ability^TMdigital solutions to its Chinese customers via the Huawei Cloud infrastructure.

In September this year, China's central authorities issued general plans for building the Guangdong-Macao in-depth cooperation zone in Hengqin and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone in Qianhai, and ABB sees new opportunities among them.

"It will open up new space for the diversified development of industries and the development of young talent in Hong Kong and Macao, creating new opportunities for the GBA to become an international science and innovation center and build a modern industrial system," Gu commented.

Jointly pursuing green and high-quality development

China aims to have CO₂emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. According to Gu, clean energy is also the main business for ABB in GBA.

"Energy is one of the bases for GBA to build a vibrant global city and consolidate its position as the economic growth pole. There is great pressure to control total carbon emissions, which is bound to strike a balance between economic and social development and environmental protection." Gu stressed. He believed two key ways could help achieve a dual carbon goal: using as much clean energy as possible and improving production efficiency to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP.

ABB has also carried out related businesses in the GBA. It established the Shenzhen New Energy Technology Center and cooperated with the government of Xinhui district in Jiangmen and Guangdong Daguangming Group Co., Ltd to build a comprehensive energy service demonstration project in industrial parks.

Innovation, vitality, and sustainable development -- these are Gu's expectations for the GBA. "We hope to have more cooperation with the GBA in digitalization and clean energy utilization in the future, jointly pursuing green and high-quality development," he said.

Author: Holly

Video: Holly

Poster: Mia

Editor: Wing, Olivia, Nan, Jerry