Shenzhen is set to introduce the 3.0 version of its "20+8" policy for emerging industrial clusters. The announcement was made during the opening of the Seventh Session of the Seventh Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress on February 9. In his government work report, Mayor Qin Weizhong revealed that by 2026, Shenzhen will formulate and implement the 3.0 version of the policy system for strategic emerging industries and future industries, with a target growth rate of over 7% for the added value of these sectors.
Data shows that in 2025, the added value of Shenzhen's strategic emerging industries reached 1.67 trillion yuan, accounting for 43.0% of the city's gross domestic product (GDP). The year 2026 marks the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, during which Shenzhen aims to achieve a growth target of over 7% for the added value of its strategic emerging industries.
Since the implementation of the "20+8" industrial cluster policy, Shenzhen's economy has expanded steadily, and its industrial structure has continued to optimize. According to the government work report, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Shenzhen's GDP grew at an average annual rate of 5.5%, the highest among China's first-tier cities. The development of new quality productive forces has been at the forefront, with the added value of strategic emerging industries rising from 1.03 trillion yuan in 2020 to 1.67 trillion yuan, accounting for 43% of GDP. The added value of advanced manufacturing accounted for 68.4% of the city's industrial output.
Notably, the smart terminal cluster has surpassed the trillion-yuan mark, while the network and communications, software and information services, and intelligent connected vehicle clusters have each exceeded 800 billion yuan. The added value of the core digital economy industries has surpassed one trillion yuan for three consecutive years. Additionally, 39 industrial products, including integrated circuits, industrial robots, and smartphones, account for over 10% of the national output.
The "20+8" policy was first introduced in June 2022 with the aim of achieving an added value of over 1.5 trillion yuan for strategic emerging industries by 2025. In March 2024, Shenzhen released an implementation plan to accelerate the development of new quality productive forces and further advance the high-quality development of strategic emerging industries and future industries, which was regarded as the "2.0 version" of the policy.
The 2.0 version adjusted the categories of the "20+8" clusters: the low-altitude economy and aerospace industry cluster was added to the strategic emerging industries; artificial intelligence, originally part of the software and information services cluster, was elevated to a standalone cluster; smart robotics and frontier new materials were added to the future industries; and the blockchain industry was merged into the software and information services cluster.
The implementation of the "20+8" industrial cluster strategy has fostered a mutually reinforcing relationship between basic research and industrial clusters, leading to numerous globally recognized innovative applications in areas such as chip technology, electric vehicles, and drones. For instance, at the 2026 CES exhibition, a global benchmark for technological innovation, nearly 400 of the approximately 4,000 exhibitors were from Shenzhen, accounting for about 10% of the total.
In terms of market entities, as of the end of 2025, Shenzhen was home to 1,333 national-level "little giant" specialized and sophisticated SMEs, ranking first among Chinese cities. It also had 117 national manufacturing champion enterprises, ranking second nationally. The Shenzhen National High-Tech Zone ranked second in the country in comprehensive evaluation. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the city added 7,300 national high-tech enterprises, bringing the total to over 26,000. Five clusters were selected as national advanced manufacturing clusters, and six national manufacturing innovation centers, technological innovation centers, and industrial innovation centers were established and put into operation.
For 2026, Shenzhen aims to achieve a growth rate of over 7% for the added value of its strategic emerging industries. Specifically, the city plans to enhance the development of advantageous industries such as next-generation electronic information, new energy vehicles, and semiconductors and integrated circuits. It will accelerate the construction and capacity ramp-up of major integrated circuit manufacturing projects, improve the development level of major equipment, key materials, packaging and testing, core software, and chip design, and promote the full-chain and international development of the new energy vehicle industry.
Additionally, Shenzhen will focus on seizing new growth opportunities in industries such as the low-altitude economy and aerospace, biomedicine, and high-performance materials. It will scientifically advance the deep integration of low-altitude aircraft and core component manufacturing, supporting services, and operational scenarios, and deepen reforms in the management system for unmanned aerial vehicle flights. The city will also accelerate the development and industrial agglomeration of innovative drugs and medical devices, and plan the construction of large-scale biomedical manufacturing parks.
In the realm of future industries, Shenzhen will actively promote Sixth-Generation Mobile Communication (6G), quantum technology, bio-manufacturing, future energy, and brain-computer interfaces as new economic growth points, and accelerate the construction of future industry pilot zones.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Shenzhen made significant breakthroughs in key core technologies across various high-tech sectors, including high-end chips, semiconductor production equipment, high-performance medical devices, precision instruments, industrial software, and advanced materials. The city also achieved major advancements in areas previously dominated by foreign technologies, such as ECMO machines, magnetic resonance imaging, and EDA software. Domestically developed operating systems like Huawei's HarmonyOS and EulerOS are accelerating their global deployment.
In the field of artificial intelligence, Shenzhen is accelerating the high-quality development and widespread application of AI technologies. The city has implemented "AI+" and "robot+" initiatives, releasing nearly 300 application scenarios across five batches. Shenzhen's computing power scale, both operational and under construction, ranks among the top three cities nationally. The city is home to over 2,600 AI-related enterprises and more than 1,000 core robotics companies. It has established the world's first robot 6S store and AI 6S store. Seven Shenzhen-based companies were listed among the top 100 global humanoid robot publicly traded companies, the highest number of any Chinese city.