The city of Dongguan, Guangdong Province, secured a 1.5-percent GDP growth year-on-year in the first half of 2023, despite a significant 11.3 percent decline in foreign trade. While global industrial and value chains are fragile amid geopolitical volatility, 58 percent of Dongguan’s industries are in manufacturing that is highly dependent on foreign trade. Nowadays, with labor-intensive manufacturing bases of multinational enterprises relocating from China to Southeast Asia, the city is diversifying its growth strategies by focusing on high-tech innovation, digital economy, new energy and branded toy creation and production. Still, experts stressed the city as well as the entire country should take concrete measures to improve foreign-investment and legal environments in a bid to prevent the departure of foreign R&D centers and key industries.
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