Advancing the construction of a globally leading and important advanced manufacturing center, along with globally influential centers for industrial technological innovation, industrial finance, consumption, and logistics." The five "centers" proposed in Shenzhen's "15th Five-Year Plan" recommendations chart the course for the city's next phase of economic and social development. On December 29th, the full text of the "Recommendations of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for Shenzhen's National Economic and Social Development" (hereinafter referred to as the "Shenzhen '15th Five-Year Plan' Recommendations") was publicly released. A review reveals the high-frequency appearance of the terms "global" and "international," mentioned hundreds of times, signaling new ambitions for global competition across key areas from advanced manufacturing and technological innovation to finance, consumption, and logistics.

As China's top industrial city, Shenzhen will advance on three fronts to build a globally leading and important advanced manufacturing center: expanding emerging industries like new-generation information technology, new energy, and whole-house smart systems; making preemptive arrangements in future industries such as 6G and embodied AI; and promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries like garments, eyewear, and gold jewelry. Concurrently, it will reinforce its technological innovation engine by refining the enterprise-led innovation ecosystem, establishing high-level innovation platforms, and building a high-quality higher education system to accelerate breakthroughs in key technological barriers.

The other three "centers" focus on service segments at both ends of the "smile curve": adhering to finance's role in serving technological innovation and the real economy, and collaborating with Hong Kong to build a globally influential industrial finance center; developing initiatives like flagship store economies, first-launch economies, and duty-free economies to activate its function as a global consumption hub; and leveraging Shenzhen Airport's million-ton cargo and mail throughput and multimodal transport network to build a strategic hub system serving the nation, radiating across the Asia-Pacific, and connecting globally.

The coordinated advancement of these five centers signifies Shenzhen's leap from a "strong manufacturing city" towards a global hub for allocating high-end factors. By 2035, Shenzhen's development as an economically central city with greater global influence and a modern international metropolis will reach a new level, positioning it as an urban exemplar in China's pursuit of building a modern socialist powerhouse.

Advancing on three fronts, Shenzhen is anchoring its position as a global advanced manufacturing center. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Shenzhen's industrial performance was remarkable, with the total output value of industrial enterprises above a designated size and the value added of all industries ranking first among Chinese cities for three consecutive years since 2022. The value added of advanced manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing accounted for 68.2% and 58.2% of the value added of industries above the designated size, respectively. Building on this new starting point for the "15th Five-Year Plan," industry's role as a "ballast stone" will continue. Shenzhen proposes to build a globally leading and important advanced manufacturing center, specifically advancing from three dimensions: the growth and strengthening of emerging industries, the formation and momentum of future industries, and the optimization and upgrading of traditional industries.

In terms of emerging industries, Shenzhen will accelerate the cluster development of strategic emerging industries such as new-generation information technology, new energy, high-end equipment, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, new materials, low-altitude economy, and aerospace, while expanding advantages in smart terminals, network and communication, intelligent connected vehicles, integrated circuits, and whole-house smart systems. For future industries, it will promote sixth-generation mobile communication, bio-manufacturing, embodied AI, optical information carrying, cell and gene technology, brain-computer interfaces, hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, and quantum technology to become new economic growth points. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Shenzhen vigorously cultivated "20+8" strategic emerging and future industrial clusters. A comparison shows that the "15th Five-Year Plan" newly adds "whole-house smart" to its key emerging industries; future industries newly include 6G, hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, and embodied AI, aligning with the national "15th Five-Year Plan" recommendations' descriptions of future industries.

Among these, developing the whole-house smart industry responds to national policy directions for "good housing" and leverages Shenzhen's strong technological accumulation in areas like 5G, IoT, and artificial intelligence. Currently, Shenzhen has built a relatively complete whole-house smart industry chain, with representative enterprises like Huawei, Aqara, and ORVIBO, and nearly 40 A-share listed companies. The "Shenzhen Action Plan for Accelerating the Application Promotion and Industrial Development of Whole-House Smart (2026-2028)" issued this November specifies that by the end of 2028, Shenzhen will build a "Whole-House Smart Pioneer City" with overall development levels leading domestically and advancing internationally.

In cutting-edge fields like 6G and embodied AI, Shenzhen has also made early moves. The city has cumulatively built 80,000 5G base stations and upgraded over 23,000 to 5G-Advanced, laying a foundation for 6G technological evolution; Shenzhen is also a key hub for embodied AI in China, known for its "Robot Valley" and "Embodied AI Port," attracting new enterprises like Zhongqing Robot, Zhi Ping Fang, and Zhuji Power. Beyond emerging and future industries, Shenzhen also boasts local specialties like Shuibei Jewelry, Henggang Eyewear, and Nanyou Garments. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, Shenzhen will vigorously promote the high-end, intelligent, and green upgrading of advantageous traditional industries—including garments, eyewear, furniture, leather, watches and clocks, gold jewelry, printing, cultural and educational entertainment manufacturing, and electrical machinery and equipment—towards new models and formats, creating a powerful, "never-ending" industry.

" Shenzhen's technological innovation remains undaunted by suppression and containment, advancing despite difficulties and scaling new heights, accelerating towards keeping pace and leading in some fields," stated Shenzhen Mayor Qin Weizhong at a recent press conference on Guangdong's achievements during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. In 2024, Shenzhen's全社会R&D投入 reached 245.31 billion yuan, accounting for 48% of Guangdong Province's total R&D投入 and ranking second among Chinese cities; the R&D intensity ratio to GDP rose to 6.67%, the highest among major Chinese cities. Behind these figures, Shenzhen is reshaping industrial ecosystems for semiconductors and industrial software through technological innovation, solidifying its position as China's "Silicon Valley" and "Southern Tech Center," and supporting the "Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou" innovation cluster's ascent to global leadership.

Moving into the "15th Five-Year Plan," Shenzhen aims to accelerate the construction of a globally influential industrial technological innovation center to lead the development of new quality productive forces. Shenzhen has long formed an innovation experience characterized by "six 90%s," such as over 90% of R&D personnel being concentrated in enterprises. During the "15th Five-Year Plan," Shenzhen will continue to consolidate and strengthen the dominant position of enterprises in innovation, adhering to enterprise demand as the guide, allocating more innovation resources like platforms, projects, talent, and funding to enterprises, cultivating and strengthening leading technology enterprises, and supporting the development of high-tech enterprises and small-to-medium-sized tech firms.

Technological innovation is inseparable from "infrastructure" guarantees. Currently, Shenzhen has built over 4,000 innovation platforms to high standards, including 1 national laboratory, 6 national innovation centers, 20 national key laboratories, 4 provincial laboratories, 82 provincial key laboratories, and over 300 municipal key laboratories. During the "15th Five-Year Plan," Shenzhen will establish more innovation platforms and carriers, strengthen strategic scientific and technological forces like the Peng Cheng Laboratory located in Shenzhen, and strive for more national and provincial laboratories and major scientific installations to be sited in Shenzhen; it will accelerate the construction of national innovation centers for bio-manufacturing, third-generation semiconductors, high-performance medical devices, 5G mid-to-high-frequency devices, ultra-high-definition video, and molecular drugs; and speed up the development of concept verification and pilot testing platforms for artificial intelligence, intelligent connected systems, low-altitude flight, and drug clinics.

Universities are also crucial actors in technological innovation. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Shenzhen established five new universities from a high starting point, including Shenzhen University of Technology, bringing the total number of higher education institutions to 18, with full-time student enrollment reaching 187,000, an increase of nearly 40% compared to the "13th Five-Year Plan" period. The Shenzhen "15th Five-Year Plan" recommendations propose accelerating the construction of a high-quality higher education system. This includes supporting universities in accelerating "Double First-Class" construction and the establishment of national interdisciplinary centers, speeding up the development of new research-oriented universities; deepening comprehensive reforms in education, exploring specialized, "small but refined," and metropolitan models of operation suited to the characteristics of a megacity; and increasing efforts to reform and innovate vocational education.

The manufacturing sector has its "smile curve." The two ends of the curve—upstream R&D and design, and downstream branding and creativity, which are service segments—typically yield the highest returns, while the middle processing and manufacturing segment lies at the bottom of the value chain. Having solidified the foundation of technological innovation and advanced manufacturing, Shenzhen is now exerting force towards the two ends of the "smile curve." The Shenzhen "15th Five-Year Plan" recommendations propose promoting the high-quality and efficient development of the service industry, accelerating the construction of globally influential centers for industrial finance, consumption, and logistics.

Specifically, the financial industry has become Shenzhen's largest service sector. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the value added of Shenzhen's financial industry grew at an average annual rate of 6.9%, accounting for around 14% of GDP. The concept of an "industrial finance center" was first mentioned in the 2025 Shenzhen Government Work Report, reflecting a significant trend: Shenzhen's continuous optimization of financial resource allocation and increasing support for the real economy and tech enterprises. By the end of the third quarter of this year, the balance of technology loans in Shenzhen reached 2.28 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.24% since the beginning of the year; seven pilot funds from bank-affiliated AICs (Asset Investment Companies) were established with a scale of 24 billion yuan, ranking first domestically in scale, primarily invested in emerging industries like AI, new energy, and new materials.

Collaboration with Hong Kong is another key to enhancing the global influence of Shenzhen's financial industry. This year, Shenzhen welcomed the establishment of branches by Hong Kong-funded and foreign banks such as Banco Santander's Shenzhen Branch and Fubon Bank (Hong Kong) Shenzhen Branch. Fubon Bank (Hong Kong) CEO Zhong Guoqiang noted that Hong Kong, as an international financial center, possesses a mature financial system and international perspective; Shenzhen aggregates a large number of high-tech enterprises, research institutions, and a complete industrial chain, coupled with vast market potential, suggesting that the complementary advantages of the two cities will unleash powerful development momentum.

According to the "15th Five-Year Plan" recommendations, Shenzhen will establish and improve a stable financial development system, mechanisms, and policy framework that better serves the construction of a modern industrial system, comprehensive innovation, and the real economy while effectively preventing and controlling risks. It aims to become one of the nation's important strategic pillars for the financial industry, a key pillar for the city's high-quality development, a significant pole in the global capital market, a global center for innovation capital and venture capital, and an important practice base for industrial financial innovation, supporting and collaborating with Hong Kong's international financial center to accelerate the high-quality development of a financial industry with Shenzhen characteristics.

Consumption, as one of the "troika" driving economic growth, connects production on one end and public well-being on the other. Shenzhen has been a member of the consumption "trillion-yuan club" for two consecutive years, with factors like Hong Kong residents traveling north and the 240-hour transit visa-free policy bringing more diverse customer flows. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, Shenzhen will accelerate the construction of a globally influential consumption center, focusing on building an international trade center, international exhibition center, creative design capital, fashion city, and world-class sightseeing, tourism, and leisure resort destination city. Specifically, Shenzhen will enhance consumption's fundamental role in economic development, aiming for "buying globally" through developing flagship store economies, first-launch economies, and duty-free economies, and for "selling globally" by creating first-class Shenzhen quality, standards, services, brands, and design. It will enhance consumption capacity, improve consumption conditions, innovate consumption scenarios, build an international consumption environment, and position Shenzhen as a key platform for the precise matching of the global supply system with effective market demand.

The logistics industry acts as the "sinews" of the real economy, a vital support for extending industrial chains, enhancing value chains, and building supply chains. Recently, with a batch of electronics weighing about 2.3 tons successfully shipped overseas via Shenzhen Airport, the airport became the third mainland Chinese airport to achieve an annual import and export cargo volume exceeding one million tons. To date, Shenzhen Airport has 63 cargo flight destinations, including 43 international and regional points, covering 27 countries and regions across five continents. Moving into the "15th Five-Year Plan," Shenzhen will accelerate the construction of a globally influential logistics center, improve coordination mechanisms within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, promote win-win oriented market integration and collaboration, focus on building an international aviation hub, a low-altitude economy center, and a supply chain organization center, enhance comprehensive international shipping services, and construct a strategic hub system, channel radiation pattern, and factor circulation network featuring multi-modal linkage of sea, land, air, and rail, serving the nation, radiating across the Asia-Pacific, and connecting globally.