Guangdong is to issue a special funding program for manufacturing empowerment covering 2026–2028, according to a press conference held by the Information Office of the People's Government of Guangdong Province on October 20.
Under the program, funding will be provided in the form of post-completion awards. After project evaluation, projects will be divided into five tiers, with a single project eligible for up to 15 million yuan.
The fund will focus on supporting empowerment projects implemented by manufacturing, software and information service enterprises. Enterprises carrying out projects in fields such as AI applications, R&D and innovation, brand building and comprehensive empowerment will be eligible to apply. The fund is expected to encourage enterprises to actively connect with high-quality resources and improve their AI application capabilities and technical levels.
Guangdong has a massive manufacturing sector with a complete range of industries. Traditional industries account for nearly 80 percent of the province's industrial output, making upgrading and transformation an urgent task.
To address these challenges, Guangdong has organized 30 offline empowerment facilitator teams to visit factories and conduct on-site diagnoses, turning enterprises' scattered and vague ideas into actionable empowerment targets.
In May 2026, Guangdong launched China's first provincial-level dedicated manufacturing empowerment platform, adopting a dual-track service model combining offline empowerment facilitators with online AI agents.
Online, AI agents provide round-the-clock responses to questions on intelligent upgrading, policy applications and business optimization, while linking enterprises with a wide range of empowerment resources.
The online platform has so far gathered more than 1,200 empowerment institutions from within and outside Guangdong and nearly 3,000 empowerment resources, covering six major areas: artificial intelligence applications, R&D and innovation, manufacturing production, brand building, market sales and comprehensive empowerment. Guangzhou has already added 81 textile and apparel empowerment projects from two batches to the platform.
Reporter | Chen Jinxia
