A comprehensive report on the five-year development achievements of the Guangzhou Tianhe Central Business District National Digital Service Export Base was released on September 1st, during a research findings conference held in the city.

According to the official findings, the base has experienced an impressive average annual compound growth rate exceeding 20% in digital service exports over the past half-decade, showcasing a robust momentum in overseas market expansion.

In April 2020, the Guangzhou Tianhe Central Business District was recognized by the Ministry of Commerce, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as one of the first batch of 12 national digital service export bases. Notably, it remains the only such base in the country anchored by a central business district model.

The base's GDP has climbed from RMB 306.6 billion in 2020 to RMB 385.4 billion in 2025. It now hosts more than 25,000 digital service enterprises, forming a well-structured four-tier corporate ecosystem that includes multinational headquarters providing stability, leading local firms building brand recognition, platform service providers facilitating connections, and industrial software and professional institutions filling support roles.

Wang Jian, director of the International Business Research Center at the University of International Business and Economics and a key member of the research task force, delivered a detailed analysis of the base's five-year performance. He highlighted that unlike most domestic digital service export hubs that rely on software parks or high-tech zones, the Tianhe CBD base has carved out a distinctive path by leveraging existing urban core buildings, headquarters resources, and professional service clusters. This approach has created the nation's only CBD-centric digital service export ecosystem.

To achieve this, Tianhe District has adopted a unique spatial layout featuring close coupling between two major clusters, without requiring large-scale new industrial land. Instead, it has revitalized existing commercial buildings and cultural and creative park resources to enable efficient industrial chain coordination.

The first cluster, the "Zhujiang New Town – Guangzhou International Finance City" technology services hub, brings together 19 specialized commercial buildings with over 5,000 resident companies. These firms specialize in fintech, offshore outsourcing, AI marketing, industrial software, and high-end professional services.

The second cluster, the "Kelu Road – Yangcheng Creative Industry Park" digital creativity hub, benefits from national cultural export base policies and gathers gaming, music, AIGC content, and cross-border e-commerce enterprises. This cluster has achieved a total output value exceeding RMB 40 billion, incubated 15 listed companies, and recorded cultural service exports of USD 850 million in 2025, marking a 38.3% year-on-year growth.

Commuting between these two clusters takes just over ten minutes, forming a closed-loop industrial chain that spans content production, technical support, platform distribution, financial and legal safeguards, and overseas market operations. This structure significantly reduces cross-regional collaboration costs for enterprises.

Currently, Tianhe District boasts three major national-level platforms: the National Digital Service Export Base, the National Cultural Export Base, and the National Data Industry Aggregation Zone. Recently, it has also been nominated by Guangdong Province for the Ministry of Commerce's "National Digital Trade Demonstration Zone" cultivation list.

As global digital trade rules undergo rapid transformation, competition in digital service exports has shifted from scale expansion to a comprehensive contest involving rules, platforms, and compliance capabilities. Industry experts suggest that the experiences accumulated by the Tianhe CBD base over five years—including coordinated development of digital service clusters in urban core areas, public platforms empowering enterprises to go global, proactive涉外 legal services, and industrial software facilitating manufacturing exports—offer valuable references for other city centers with strong headquarters economies, agglomerations of digital service firms, and robust professional service resources.