en.Wedoany.com Reported - On May 7, 2026, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China held a press conference to officially release the "Overall Plan for Building Dongguan into a Global Intelligent Manufacturing Center (2026–2030)." The plan proposes to build upon the foundation of "manufacturing as the city's cornerstone," comprehensively advancing the high-end, intelligent, and green transformation of the manufacturing sector, and striving to create a globally influential intelligent manufacturing center. At the press conference, Zeng Jianpeng, Member of the Standing Committee of the Dongguan Municipal Committee and Executive Vice Mayor, led the release team, all wearing AI glasses made in Dongguan. This marked the first time globally that a press conference was conducted entirely using AI glasses.
Zeng Jianpeng pointed out at the press conference that the shift from the "World's Factory" to a "Global Intelligent Manufacturing Center" is not just a name change, but a profound reshaping that touches the city's industrial DNA—it signifies a fundamental change in the development logic of manufacturing, an overall elevation of value coordinates, and a strategic restructuring of global positioning. "With a complete and solid manufacturing system, a daring and experimental spirit of innovation, and the era-defining opportunity of coordinated development in the Greater Bay Area, we have the confidence and assurance to build a world-renowned intelligent manufacturing city on the eastern bank of the Pearl River Estuary. It will represent the Greater Bay Area and even China in competing on the global stage of high-end manufacturing, injecting solid Dongguan strength into the construction of a manufacturing powerhouse."
As an internationally renowned manufacturing city, Dongguan boasts a complete industrial system and well-established industrial chain support, covering over 80% of major industrial categories. It hosts 4 national-level advanced manufacturing clusters, ranks among the top three nationwide in the number of industrial enterprises above designated size, and consistently ranks in the top five nationally in total foreign trade volume. It is a crucial global manufacturing base, producing one-fifth of the world's smartphones, one-quarter of its animation derivatives, and 85% of branded pickleball paddles; simultaneously, it accounts for 85% of the nation's art toy production capacity and one-tenth of its AI server output. A range of competitive products, such as AI glasses, smartwatches, and printed circuit boards, are deeply embedded in the international industrial chain, laying a solid foundation for Dongguan's leap from scale manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing.
The "Overall Plan" centers on a core framework of "1+2+3+4+5+6+20," systematically outlining a clear roadmap for building the Global Intelligent Manufacturing Center over the next five years. "1" anchors the core goal of leaping from the "World's Factory" to a "Global Intelligent Manufacturing Center"; "2" focuses on two major driving directions: technological innovation and industrial upgrading; "3" seizes three key window periods: the iteration of artificial intelligence technology, the restructuring of global supply chains, and the coordinated development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area; "4" relies on four major strategic supports: the new industrialization strategy, the "AI + Manufacturing" special action, the integrated development of the Shenzhen metropolitan area, and the new city goal of "Intelligent Creation of Excellent Products, Harmonious and Livable City"; "5" strengthens five major capability enhancements: key technology leadership, full-process intelligent manufacturing, high-end intelligent product supply, global resource allocation, and industrial ecosystem integration; "6" revolves around the closed-loop system of "Technological Breakthroughs—Capability Leap—Brand Building—Enterprise Cultivation and Strengthening—Global Leadership—Ecosystem Agglomeration," implementing six major key projects and 20 specific tasks.
The foremost of the six major projects, the AI-Empowered Manufacturing Project, will leverage the National AI Application Pilot Base to support key enterprises in developing industrial intelligent agents with data processing and intelligent decision-making capabilities. It aims to create over 50 industry-specific large models for industrial vertical domains, build more than 150 industry-level high-quality datasets, aggregate high-value industrial datasets from the "8+8+4" key industries, and fully build a full-stack, independently controllable application R&D and pilot verification platform integrating computing power, models, data, toolchains, and scenario validation services. Artificial intelligence is bringing a comprehensive transformation to Dongguan's manufacturing industry, from the "workshop floor" to the "ecosystem." Currently, Dongguan has established the nation's first city-level large model center for the manufacturing sector, with over 10,000 industrial enterprises above designated size implementing digital transformation. Dongguan will also accelerate cooperation with Shenzhen to jointly build the National AI Application Pilot Base, promoting the construction of platforms such as the Chip Application Development Center, the OpenHarmony Adaptation Center, the Ascend Ecosystem Adaptation Center, and the Pilot Verification Center.
The Industrial Capability Leap Project aims to comprehensively enhance industrial chain control. The plan proposes focusing on the upgrading, security, and controllability of industrial and supply chains, targeting key components for high-end equipment, foundational industrial software, and other links. It will actively undertake major national technological research tasks, selectively implement no fewer than 60 major science and technology projects, and comprehensively carry out integrated collaborative research across the entire industrial chain. It plans to layout and build the OpenHarmony Hardware Co-creation Center and the Intelligent Manufacturing Scenario Innovation Center, create over 200 benchmark application scenarios for "AI + Manufacturing," and cultivate 50 smart factories at the advanced level or above. The core of industrial chain control lies in achieving high-level technological self-reliance and strength. Dongguan will rely on major installations, universities, and platforms such as the China Spallation Neutron Source, the Dongguan Institute of Materials Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Greater Bay Area University, and the Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, using next-generation artificial intelligence technology to tackle key core technologies at the source in fields like semiconductors and integrated circuits, new materials, and biomedicine. Currently, Dongguan has initiated the construction of 7 innovation consortia in areas like new energy storage, industrial machine tools and molds, and compound semiconductors, with cumulative R&D investment reaching 500 million yuan and over one hundred invention patent applications filed.
The Brand Enhancement Project will accelerate innovation breakthroughs in new types of terminals such as AI phones, AI wearable devices, AI glasses, and AI companion toys, strengthening key performance improvements like human-computer interaction and scenario adaptation. It will promote more innovative products to debut, premiere, and exhibit first in Dongguan, expand the "Dongguan Premium Products" brand matrix, and cultivate leading brands and national trend brands with global recognition. The Enterprise Cultivation and Strengthening Project will improve the gradient cultivation system for large, medium, and small enterprises, adding over 120 new specialized and sophisticated "Little Giant" enterprises and incubating over 1,000 high-growth enterprises. The Global Collaborative Innovation Project focuses on creating the "Longfeng New Area" for integrated development with Shenzhen and the "Huan Weieshan" scientific research circle, leading or participating in the formulation of over 20 international standards for intelligent manufacturing. The Industrial Ecosystem Expansion Project covers strengthening the cultivation of intelligent manufacturing talent, improving new infrastructure such as intelligent computing centers, 5G-A, and 10-Gigabit optical networks, with cumulative fiscal investment exceeding 1.5 billion yuan over five years, leveraging over 20 billion yuan in social capital investment.
The Dongguan Municipal Development and Reform Bureau stated that Dongguan will take the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as the overall guide, focusing on three major paths: industrial collaboration, platform empowerment, and factor circulation, to comprehensively enhance the influence and competitiveness of Dongguan's industries. Internally, it will accelerate the improvement of the "8+8+4" modern industrial system and deeply implement the "Sixteen Ones" cultivation mechanism around 25 key industrial tracks; externally, it will focus on opening up "external connection" channels, engaging in deep cooperation with cities like Shenzhen and Guangzhou in industrial tracks such as artificial intelligence, low-altitude economy, and semiconductors, through scenario co-construction, achievement transformation, and paradigm sharing. The Dongguan Municipal Government Services and Data Management Bureau pointed out that industrial data is the core fuel for AI-empowered manufacturing. Dongguan will build an industrial ecosystem around the entire chain of data collection, governance, and circulation trading, jointly promote the construction of the "Harmony City" with industry and information technology departments, revitalize data resources through "industrial harmonization" transformation, and facilitate smooth trading and circulation channels through service institutions such as the Guangzhou Data Exchange and the Shenzhen Data Exchange.
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