In the Proposal of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for Guangdong’s National Economic and Social Development (hereinafter referred to as the “Proposal”), which was reviewed and adopted at the Seventh Plenary Session of the 13th CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, the statement “strengthening the leading role of major economic cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan and Huizhou” has attracted widespread attention.
This marks the first time that Huizhou has been explicitly listed as a “major economic city” in the provincial Party committee’s planning proposal. In Guangdong’s economic landscape, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan and Dongguan are all traditional major economic cities with GDP exceeding one trillion yuan. In 2024, Huizhou’s GDP successfully exceeded 600 billion yuan, firmly ranking fifth in the province, and is currently the prefecture-level city closest to the one-trillion-yuan GDP mark in Guangdong. The province’s granting of the new positioning of “major economic city” to Huizhou means that Huizhou will play a greater role in Guangdong’s economic development during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period.
Major development platforms, key projects and advantageous industries are important drivers of economic development. Reporters have noticed that the Proposal mentions platform projects closely related to Huizhou, such as the High-Quality Development Leading Zone for Counties, Towns and Villages around Nankun Mountain-Luofu Mountain, the area around Daya Bay, Renping Peninsula and Huizhou Pingtan Airport, as well as advantageous industries including electronic information, intelligent home appliances and petrochemicals, making the “Huizhou-related content” in the Proposal highly notable.
Huizhou’s Average GDP Growth Rate Ranked First in Guangdong in the First Four Years of the “14th Five-Year Plan”
The new positioning of “major economic city” is undoubtedly a high recognition of Huizhou’s development achievements by the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and the provincial government.
Data shows that Huizhou’s economic aggregate has ranked fifth in the province for many consecutive years. In the first four years of the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, Huizhou’s GDP grew at an average annual rate of 6.1%, ranking first in the province, and its total volume successively crossed the 500-billion-yuan and 600-billion-yuan marks. In 2024, its GDP entered the top 50 in the country for the first time, achieving a historic breakthrough and providing important support for the province’s economic development.
In July 2024, the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and the provincial government issued the Opinions on Supporting Huizhou to Accelerate the Construction of a Green and Low-Carbon Industrial System and Build a New Growth Pole for High-Quality Development in Guangdong, proposing to promote Huizhou to comprehensively enhance its development level, build a global highland for the petrochemical industry and a first-class domestic digital industry base, and strive to create a new growth pole for high-quality development in Guangdong.
This indicates that Huizhou has long been regarded by the province as an important city and a development highland in the process of high-quality development of the whole province in the new era.
After being endowed with the new positioning of “major economic city”, Huizhou’s status in Guangdong’s economic landscape will be greatly elevated.
From the previous four major economic cities of “Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Foshan-Dongguan” to the current listing of Huizhou alongside them in the important planning document of the provincial Party committee, it means that Huizhou needs to shoulder greater responsibilities in terms of economic aggregate, development quality and regional driving effect during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period.
Vigorously Implementing the “100 Counties, 1,000 Towns and 10,000 Villages High-Quality Development Project” and Accelerating the Development of Marine Economy
On June 29, the most beautiful tourist highway in Huizhou’s Leading Zone around Nankun Mountain-Luofu Mountain was completed and opened to traffic; on July 15, the ExxonMobil Huizhou Ethylene Project, the first major petrochemical project invested and constructed solely by a U.S. enterprise in China, was officially put into production; on November 26, the first steel box girder of the Dongjiang Grand Bridge on Huizhou No.1 Highway was successfully erected… Since the beginning of this year, Huizhou has received a steady stream of good news in the construction of key projects.
The empowerment of Huizhou’s development by the Proposal is multi-dimensional and systematic. In addition to directly granting the positioning of “major economic city”, the document also contains major strategic layouts closely related to Huizhou in many places.
For example, the High-Quality Development Leading Zone for Counties, Towns and Villages around Nankun Mountain-Luofu Mountain, Renping Peninsula and the area around Daya Bay mentioned in the Proposal all take Huizhou as their core regions.
Among them, the Leading Zone around Nankun Mountain-Luofu Mountain is positioned to become an ecological garden in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, a world-class forest hot spring health and wellness destination, a model for the modernization of counties, towns and villages with Lingnan characteristics, and a pilot area for urban-rural integrated development, while Renping Peninsula is positioned as an energy technology island, a life and health island, a high-end tourism island and an ecologically livable island. They are all high-profile key projects in Huizhou and even the whole of Guangdong during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, as well as important growth points for development.
Seeking benefits from ecology, driving force from the ocean, vigorously implementing the “100 Counties, 1,000 Towns and 10,000 Villages High-Quality Development Project” and accelerating the development of marine economy are Huizhou’s proactive actions to implement the strategic requirements of the country and the province, and also an inevitable choice for high-quality development and accelerating the building of a new growth pole for high-quality development in Guangdong.
With high-quality resource endowments in mountains and seas, Huizhou is bound to have great prospects for development towards mountains and seas during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period.
Advantageous Industrial Clusters Are an Important Grasp for Huizhou’s Next Step of Development
The Proposal puts forward the goal of high-quality construction of a manufacturing powerhouse province.
Huizhou is a traditional industrial city in Guangdong and also the fifth “trillion-yuan industrial city”. In 2021, Huizhou’s total industrial output value exceeded one trillion yuan for the first time, and then rose to 1.3 trillion yuan and 1.5 trillion yuan in 2023 and 2025 respectively.
The confidence of being a “major economic city” stems from a solid industrial foundation.
The Proposal mentions that it is necessary to “forge more trillion-yuan and 100-billion-yuan industrial clusters”, “promote the quality improvement and upgrading of industries such as steel, petrochemicals, automobiles and ships”, and “accelerate the development of strategic emerging industrial clusters such as new energy, new materials, commercial aerospace and low-altitude economy”.
In fact, in recent years, Huizhou has been promoting the continuous optimization and high-end upgrading of its industrial structure through the path of “large projects – industrial chains – industrial clusters”. It focuses on two trillion-yuan industrial clusters of petrochemical energy and new materials, and electronic information, and strives to build a “2+1” modern industrial system and “3+7” industrial parks.
Among them, only in the electronic information industrial cluster, there are multiple 100-billion-yuan sub-sectors such as intelligent terminals, new energy storage and core basic electronics. After entering the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, these advantageous industrial grasps are not only a strong reliance for Huizhou as a “major economic city”, but will also contribute tremendous Huizhou strength to the province’s high-quality development journey.
Song Ding, Dean of the China Urban Expert Network Research Institute and Senior Researcher of the National High-End Think Tank CDI, suggested that in the next step, Huizhou can continue to deepen regional coordination and promote in-depth integration with surrounding cities in industries, transportation, ecology and other fields. At the same time, focus on new productive forces, vigorously develop marine economy, rely on the existing industrial foundation to form leading advantages in tracks such as new energy, new materials and high-end electronics, and continuously polish Huizhou’s new name card as a “major economic city”.
