South China's Guangdong province pledged to build a modern industrial system that leverages the province's unique characteristics and advantages, and boasts strong competitiveness through scientific and technological innovation in the coming five years.

Governor Meng Fanli outlined his province's development ambition for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30) at a news conference in the provincial capital of Guangzhou on Tuesday. Meng said building a modern industrial system must be guided by scientific and technological innovation. He urged relevant cities and departments to rely on scientific and technological innovation to accelerate the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces, which will help drive the development of a modern industrial system that keeps pace with the times.

Meng said Guangdong, China's economic powerhouse and a global innovation hub, will be able to achieve a substantial upgrade in its scientific and technological innovation capacity in five years.

"An integrated development pattern of education, science and technology, and talent will be basically established, while the province's annual average growth of the whole society's R&D investment will reach 5 percent, and the role of innovation-driven development will be significantly strengthened," he said.

According to the governor, Guangdong's regional GDP will be able to achieve an average annual growth of around 5 percent, with major breakthroughs made in fostering new quality productive forces, serving and integrating into the new development paradigm, and developing a modern economic system in the coming five-year period.

The province's GDP rose from 11.37 trillion yuan ($1.67 trillion) in 2021 to 14.58 trillion yuan in 2025, ranking first nationwide for 37 consecutive years.

Meng said other major indicators have also achieved solid growth during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25). This includes the operating income of industrial enterprises above designated size reaching 19.34 trillion yuan; total import and export volume hitting 9.49 trillion yuan; local general public budget revenue standing at 1.39 trillion yuan; and the number of market entities in stock exceeding 22 million.

Meng also highlighted how the province's per capita disposable income of residents rose by 30.8 percent over the past five years.

"All these indicators rank first across the country," he said.

Guangdong's regional innovation capability has topped the nation for nine consecutive years, and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou innovation cluster has risen to the first place worldwide, he said.

Meanwhile, Guangdong's socialist market economic system will further be improved, with the institutional mechanisms for high-standard opening-up becoming more robust in five years, Meng said, adding that social civility will also see notable improvement.

"The development of a culturally strong province will be advanced to a new high level, with vitality for cultural innovation and creation, and cultural soft power together with the influence of Lingnan (South China) culture will be remarkably enhanced in the following years," he added.

Wang Yueqin, director of the provincial department of science and technology, said Guangdong's comprehensive regional innovation capacity retained its top rank nationwide for nine consecutive years largely due to its strong corporate innovation capability.

The province is home to 74,000 high-tech enterprises and 56,000 technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises in the inventory, both taking the lead in China, while a number of globally influential leading sci-tech enterprises have emerged, she said.

"During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, we will unswervingly consolidate the dominant role of enterprises in innovation, and allocate more innovation resources including platforms, projects, talents and funds to enterprises and better connect such resources with them," said Wang.

She said her department will further support leading sci-tech enterprises to play their roles as industrial chain leaders, take the lead in forming innovation consortia, and undertake major scientific and technological breakthrough tasks, while granting enterprises decision-making power over the choice of technical routes.

She urged implementation of the chief scientist responsibility system, directly including enterprise chief scientists in the provincial science and technology expert database, and treating independent research projects undertaken by leading sci-tech enterprises as provincial science and technology program projects in the coming years.

"Building an open and collaborative innovation community in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area represents the distinctive feature and inherent strength of constructing the GBA international science and technology innovation hub. In the following five years, we will further deepen scientific and technological innovation cooperation with the two SARs," she said.

Gong Zhenzhi, director of the Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission, said Guangdong will actively align with the five-year plans of Hong Kong and Macao, deepen all-around cooperation among the three regions, and jointly build a first-class bay area and world-class urban cluster brimming with vitality and international competitiveness in the coming years.