Industrial robots carry out welding operations in an intelligent workshop of an automobile manufacturer located in Jiangdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone, Yangzhou, East China’s Jiangsu Province, on October 18, 2024. China"s GDP grew 4.8 percent year on year in the first nine months of 2024, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on the day. Photo: VCG

　　A good number of provincial level governments in China have recently released their economic growth targets for 2026, with a strong focus on expanding research and development and increasing investment on innovation to drive growth.

　　South China’s Guangdong Province has set its 2026 GDP growth target at 4.5-5.0 percent, with local budget revenue projected to rise by about 3 percent and average household income to grow in lockstep with its GDP growth, CCTV News reported on Monday.

　　According to its provincial government work report, Guangdong pledged to accelerate the integration of technological innovation, targeting total R&D spending of 535 billion yuan ($76.9 billion) and an R&D intensity of 3.6 percent. Such efforts have made the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou innovation cluster in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area the world"s top innovation cluster, according to the work report.

　　The report outlines a number of plans, including 11 Guangdong companies being named among the world"s top 100 listed humanoid robot firms, and an anticipated low-altitude flight scale of 20.6 million flights. Key sectors for expansion include new energy, new materials, intelligent connected vehicles, intelligent robots, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, aerospace, integrated circuits, the low-altitude economy, and bio-manufacturing.