As the birthplace of Maritime Silk Road in China, Guangzhou has always been an important port city. It has prosperous economy and trade, and open its arms to the merchants from all over the world. In 2020, the GDP volume of Guangzhou reached 250.191 billion yuan. The total import and export value amounted to 130.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 9.8%. The proportion of tertiary industry continued to rise, and high technology industry, strategic emerging industry and new businesses saw faster expansion. In 2014, Guangzhou was honored the best mainland commercial city by Forbes China for the fourth time.

Agriculture
In 2014, the gross output value of agriculture in Guangzhou reached 40.167 billion yuan, with a growth of 0.8% year on year. The planting industry and animal husbandry sustained stable growth.

Industry
Traditional competetive industries such as equipment manufacturing, food processing, textile & garment and shipbuilding enjoyed steady development, and new business types including 3D printing and industrial robot grew rapidly. In 2014, the added value and gross output value of industries above a designated scale were 485.96 billion yuan and about 1.82 trillion yuan, respectively.

Tertiary Industry
The logistics industry developed steadily. In 2014, the tonnage mileage in Guangzhou was 859.62 billion tons per kilometer, passenger turnover was 249.59 billion persons per kilometer, passenger traffic was 980 million person-time, and airport cargo throughput was more than 1.89 million tons. The gross revenue of tourism was 252.18 billion yuan, and the number of tourists staying overnight in Guangzhou was over 53.30 million person-time.

Innovation-driven Initiative
In order to build national innovative city, Guangzhou has implemented the ‘double growth plan’ on expenditure for technical research and development and incubator for high-tech businesses, boosted innovation projects in health and medical treatment, intelligent equipment and mobile Internet application, carried forward the establishment of innovative platform, and motivated enterprises’ innovation vigor. In 2014, the output value of new high-tech product achieved by industrial enterprises above designated size was 800.14 billion yuan.

Finance
The financial reform and innovation policy for Nansha New Area, a financial innovative platform, was approved. More financing institutions entered and are stationed in its financial function area, the Financial Asset Exchange Center were listed and has been put into operation, its carbon emissions trading volume accounted for 62% of the whole China, and the annual turnover of Guangdong Plastics Exchange exceeded 400 billion yuan. In 2014, five more listed enterprises entered Nansha New Area. The premium income reached 601.80 billion yuan.

Foreign Trade
The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road has been opened up, the pilot free trade zone was successfully established, new businesses including cross-border electronic commerce, service outsourcing and bonded logistics were developed, and open economy developed with a steady pace. In 2014, Guangzhou achieved the total import and export value of 130.60 billion U.S. dollars.

International Transportation Hub
In 2014, Baiyun International Airport had a passenger throughput of more than 54.78 million person-time, ranking No. 2 in China; its cargo throughput was over 1.89 million tons, among the top 15 airports in the world. The cargo throughput of Guangzhou Port reached 482 million tons, and the container throughput was 16.38 million TEUs, ranking the 5th and 8th among all the ports in the world, respectively.

Consumption
Guangzhou upgraded and rebuilt its key business areas, sped up the construction of international convention center, logistics center and purchasing center, improve the function of commerce and trade in them and launched a series of activities on commerce, trade, and exhibition. It launched the pilot projects on the transformation of professional wholesale markets, facilitated the industrial upgrading, promoted new-type consumption such as information, culture, health and tourism, and motivated the vigor of consumption. In 2014, the whole city realized the total retail sales of consumer goods of 769.79 billion yuan. Newly-developing consumption needs represented by communication-electronics and e-commerce were in great demand, with a turnover achieved by online shops of 50.97 billion yuan.

Employment
Guangzhou has taken several employment promotion measures. In 2014, newly employed persons in cities and towns were 270.8 thousand in number, 175 thousand registered unemployed people got new jobs, and the registered urban unemployment rate was 2.26%.