From the world's factory to a global innovation hub, technological innovation has given birth to "Made in China" intelligent manufacturing, with productive service industries playing an increasingly important role in this paradigm shift. The Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone was established in 2010, the same year China reclaimed its position as the world's largest manufacturing nation, a status it maintains today.

Anchored in "modern service industry," Qianhai has seen continuous emergence of new models and formats, serving as both a global investment hotspot and a "cyber testing ground" for cutting-edge technology. The skyline here is filled with logos of financial institutions like HSBC Holdings PLC, Bank of East Asia, and WeBank, while professional service institutions covering legal, tax, and consulting services, as well as R&D centers in emerging fields like AI, robotics, and low-altitude economy converge in Qianhai, showcasing "Hong Kong flavor, futuristic appeal, coastal style, modernization, and forward-looking vision."

Through this approach, Qianhai continues to reshape the value chain and future landscape of "intelligent manufacturing" with high value-added knowledge and technology-intensive service industries. In 2024, Qianhai's actual use of foreign investment reached 26.65 billion yuan, fixed asset investment hit 169.1 billion yuan, and tax revenue totaled 89.2 billion yuan, representing increases of 117 times, 93 times, and 171 times respectively since its establishment.

Modern service industry serves as Qianhai's absolute pillar, achieving an added value of 95.26 billion yuan in the first half of this year with a 8.6% year-on-year growth, accounting for 84% of the service industry and 65.5% of GDP. Currently, Qianhai houses 124,800 modern service industry enterprises, with performance levels comparable to advanced global service regions.

**"Tech Content": Enabling "Intelligent Manufacturing" from Following to Leading**

For a long time, technology service industry has been viewed as a "lubricant" for manufacturing, providing basic services like R&D, design, testing, and intellectual property. Today, with the rise of new quality productive forces, the role of technology service industry has undergone fundamental transformation—from simple supporting functions to becoming the value center of industrial chains, and even standard-setters in certain fields.

Gradually, technology services have evolved from "cost departments" to profit "growth engines" for leading enterprises. In July this year, the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee Office and Qianhai Management Authority jointly issued the "Action Plan for Supporting High-Quality Development of Technology Service Industry (2025-2027)," proposing to significantly boost the number, innovation capacity, and foreign investment proportion of high-level R&D centers in Qianhai by the end of 2027, with R&D centers exceeding 100 and foreign investment proportion surpassing 30%.

Subsequently, at Guangdong Province's special conference on accelerating modern industrial system construction (modern service industry session), Qianhai Management Authority revealed that according to latest professional assessments, Qianhai's modern service industry has approached advanced levels of developed regions worldwide. Among Hong Kong-funded enterprises in Qianhai, service industry companies account for 95%, with Hong Kong enterprises accelerating expansion from traditional fields like finance and logistics to emerging areas such as technology services and information services.

To enhance the "tech content" of service industry, Qianhai is taking action. The "Comprehensive Plan for Deepening Reform and Opening Up of Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone" issued in September 2021 provided an 8-fold expansion in physical space, enabling richer emerging industries and service scenarios.

For example, optimizing autonomous driving performance requires substantial road testing data support, but many cities currently only allow testing in sparsely populated suburban areas. In Shenzhen, Pony.ai Robotaxi has achieved 24/7 operations, shuttling daily through Qianhai, Nanshan, and Baoan central districts, covering core landmarks including Shenzhen Talent Park, Qianhai Kerry Centre, Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneur Hub, and Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport.

As early as 2021, Pony.ai established its Shenzhen R&D center in Qianhai. "We have a small ambition to pioneer Robotaxi operations in central urban areas of first-tier cities nationwide, starting from Qianhai to radiate to more areas in Shenzhen, and explore larger-scale implementation across the country," said Mo Luyi, Vice President of Pony.ai and Head of Guangzhou-Shenzhen R&D Center.

Another example is the emerging "Embodied Intelligence Port" in Qianhai's Dachanwan area. Damon Robotics launched its global headquarters office base in July; Galaxy General invested 1 billion yuan to establish its southern headquarters, focusing on humanoid robot R&D centers and assembly lines; Huawei collaborative projects including Zhaowei Machinery & Electronics, Topstar, and Jinpeng Robotics, as well as Dreame ecosystem incubation projects like Magic Atom have all registered and landed.

With Shenzhen's new round of comprehensive reform pilot launching, Qianhai also proposes exploring breakthrough measures including de-administration of new R&D institutions, employee contract systems, market-oriented salary management systems, and allowing foreign scientists to serve as legal representatives of new R&D institutions.

Data shows that from January to October 2024, revenue of designated technology service enterprises in Qianhai grew 19.6% year-on-year, with the top ten designated technology service enterprises achieving revenue of 6.19 billion yuan, up 37.1%, demonstrating strong development momentum.

The development of modern service industry lies not only in itself but also in the value chain extension of manufacturing. According to relevant calculations, modern service industry often accounts for 50%-60% of terminal added value in various high-end equipment.

"The development of emerging industries urgently needs institutional and mechanism innovation, such as solving management system issues of new R&D institutions, government regulatory problems, and cross-border data issues," said Guo Wanda, Executive Vice President of China Development Institute (Shenzhen). "After expansion, Qianhai has greater development space in emerging fields like AI, robotics, marine, and low-altitude economy, giving it a new mission to lead institutional and mechanism exploration in Shenzhen and nationwide."

Zheng Yongnian, Dean of the School of Public Policy at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) and Director of Qianhai Institute for International Affairs, also noted: "The core of modern service industry should be services targeting real manufacturing industry, requiring basic scientific research, applied technology, and financial support as 'three driving forces' advancing together."

**"Gold Content": Injecting Strong Momentum into Technological Innovation**

Currently, the financial industry has evolved from traditional credit services to serve real enterprises across more scenarios and throughout entire chains. Particularly, as a national demonstration window for financial industry opening-up, Qianhai serves as an important source of Shenzhen-Hong Kong cross-border finance, providing richer scenarios for financial support of technological innovation and real economy.

In Shenzhen's new round of comprehensive reform pilot, Qianhai explicitly focuses on emerging finance, cross-border finance, supply chain finance, and technology finance, launching intellectual property securitization products and building a Hong Kong listing cultivation base.

Currently, Qianhai has launched "Tech Startup Connect" exclusive credit services, serving over 4,100 enterprises, with 80% being startup tech companies not on government cultivation lists, providing credit of over 5.5 billion yuan at rates as low as 3.45%. WeBank has successively launched digital financial products like "WeYeDai" and "WeLiDai," serving over 420 million individual customers and accumulating loan applications from over 6 million small and micro enterprises.

The establishment of a "Hong Kong listing cultivation base" particularly meets the practical needs of mainland enterprises. In Shenzhen alone, star companies like UBTech Robotics, XtalPi, and DOBOT have listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in recent years, creating well-known commercial stories as "first humanoid robot stock," "first 18C stock," and "first collaborative robot stock."

According to Deloitte statistics, in the first half of this year, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange became the world's largest IPO fundraising exchange with 40 new stocks raising HK$102.1 billion. Using Qianhai as a "bridge" to help enterprises list in Hong Kong also signifies deeper "mutual empowerment" in Shenzhen-Hong Kong financial cooperation.

The platform learned that, relying on Qianhai Equity Exchange, Qianhai will strengthen cooperation with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, connecting "Tech Enterprise Direct Line" communication channels, seeking preliminary guidance on specific issues related to Hong Kong listing rules, helping enterprises understand applicable Hong Kong listing mechanisms, and providing one-stop services including policy consultation, compliance guidance, project roadshows, and cornerstone investor matching.

"Qianhai continues to break through in institutional innovation and financial opening-up, with increasingly comprehensive Hong Kong enterprise and Hong Kong people service systems, and steady progress in rule alignment and mechanism integration with Hong Kong in the financial field," said Louisa Liao, Co-Chief Executive of HSBC Asia and Middle East. At the beginning of the year, HSBC Holdings PLC's Qianhai office building with total investment exceeding 4 billion yuan was officially opened. The launch of the new office building aims to better utilize Qianhai's policy and location advantages and seize the accelerating market opening and economic development opportunities in the Greater Bay Area.

Behind this lies Qianhai's rising fintech capabilities. Three core teams—HSBC China Shenzhen Branch, HSBC Qianhai Securities, and HSBC Software Development (Guangdong)—have all moved into HSBC Holdings PLC Qianhai office building. One kilometer away, Bank of East Asia Qianhai Tower is positioned as the bank's Greater Bay Area "strategic hub," with consecutive moves by Bank of East Asia China Shenzhen flagship branch, fintech innovation center and startup cooperation platform BEAST, data science laboratory, and subsidiaries like Bank of East Asia Qianhai Securities.

Li Minbin, Co-Chief Executive of Bank of East Asia, believes that by deploying major business segments including banking, securities, investment, asset management, and fintech here, the bank aims to utilize "dual platform" capabilities domestically and internationally along with overseas branch networks to provide more cross-border financial services for Greater Bay Area customers.

**"Specialization Content": Professional Services Power the "Great Navigation" Era**

In recent years, Chinese enterprises have fully launched their "Great Navigation Era," with China's manufacturing global layout increasingly deepening. The essential purpose of "going overseas" is to achieve optimal allocation of global resources. Particularly, with Shenzhen regaining its position as China's "foreign trade champion city" last year, new trade formats like cross-border e-commerce are thriving, the foreign trade "circle of friends" continues expanding, and global market "Shenzhen depth" keeps improving.

Correspondingly, Qianhai's "specialization content"—professional service capabilities continue enhancing. In November last year, Amazon Global Selling's first innovation center in Asia-Pacific launched in Qianhai. "Shenzhen's logistics network provides diversified choices for cross-border e-commerce and significantly improves logistics efficiency," said Jin Yanzhen, Vice President of Amazon China and Head of Amazon Global Selling China Seller Management. Qianhai's continuous innovation in cross-border e-commerce policies and regulatory models was the main reason for Amazon's investment.

In July this year, Google Cross-border E-commerce Acceleration Center (Shenzhen) officially began operations in Qianhai, aiming to help Chinese sellers develop independent stations and establish proprietary brand assets through Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) models.

The wave of Chinese enterprises going overseas has also generated substantial demand for foreign-related legal services including intellectual property, overseas asset maintenance, and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Qianhai is currently the only China-approved demonstration zone for socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics. In January 2022, Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration—the first arbitration institution among all provinces and cities since reform and opening-up—officially established its headquarters in Qianhai. Simultaneously, "Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong International Legal Services Zone" began operations.

In 2024, Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration handled cases involving disputes worth 142.3 billion yuan, ranking third globally. Since the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong International Legal Services Zone began operations over three years ago, it has gathered 265 legal service institutions including 6 foreign law firm representative offices, 1 Chinese-foreign law firm joint office, and 12 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao joint law firms, constructing a comprehensive legal service system covering arbitration, mediation, lawyer services, notarization, judicial appraisal, legal verification, and neutral evaluation.

While introducing resources and forming clusters, Qianhai also dedicates itself to integrating and "packaging" various overseas services. In July last year, the "Shenzhen·Qianhai Going Overseas e-Station" platform officially launched, integrating 70 public service items and 10 specialized service zones. Over the past year, the platform has established cooperation with 40 overseas park operators in 32 countries, cumulatively serving over 800 going-overseas enterprises, forming an active overseas service ecosystem.

As professional services evolve from dispersion to integration, the scale effects of decreasing marginal transaction costs gradually emerge, with Qianhai gaining recognition as the "first stop" for Chinese enterprises going overseas. In 2024, Qianhai Cooperation Zone's total import and export volume reached 706.65 billion yuan, up 42.4% year-on-year, nearly doubling since 2021. Among this, cross-border e-commerce import and export volume exceeded 120 billion yuan, growing over 100% year-on-year.