Province's recent innovations in manufacturing, mobility going global, showing further growth possibilities A driverless robotaxi glides through the streets of Guangzhou, Guangdong province, slowing to pick up a passenger before merging back into traffic. Roughly 70 kilometers away in Dongguan, robotic arms work in harmony on an assembly line, while in Shenzhen, an engineer uploads a circuit design to an online platform, and within hours the first prototype is already entering production. Though these technologies appear to belong to different industries, they share one thing in common: many are being developed by private enterprises from Guangdong, China's largest provincial economy and one of the country's most vibrant innovation hubs. One year after the implementation of the Private Economy Promotion Law — the country's first comprehensive legislation dedicated to promoting private sector development — Guangdong is increasingly emerging as a testing ground where policy support, manufacturing capabilities and entrepreneurial vitality are combining to nurture a new generation of globally competitive industries. READ MORE: Guangdong to boost sci-tech innovation According to the Guangdong Federation of Industry and Commerce, private businesses accounted for more than 95 percent of all market entities in the province by the end of 2025, contributing over 60 percent of its GDP and foreign trade. More importantly, private businesses have become the backbone of Guangdong's innovation ecosystem, making up more than 80 percent of both the province's national-level "little giant" enterprises and nationally recognized high-tech companies. Labs to real roads Few sectors better illustrate Guangdong's push toward innovation-driven growth than autonomous driving. Founded less than a decade ago in Guangzhou, WeRide has grown into one of the world's leading autonomous driving companies whose automobility services have been deployed in more than 40 cities across 12 countries. Eyeing an expanded global footprint, in April, WeRide launched robotaxi operations in Singapore