Shenzhen’s Longhua District has been recognized as a national innovation leader, ranking 22nd in the inaugural list of China’s most venture-worthy districts in 2024. The list was recently released at the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting in Beijing.

The evaluation, conducted by leading financial information platform CVINFO, analyzed all county-level regions and economic zones with a GDP exceeding 100 billion yuan. It was based on two major indices—regional venture capital environment and development quality—and ten metrics covering entrepreneurship, growth potential, industrial transformation, and emerging industries.

The selected districts showcased strong performance in sectors such as electronic information, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing, which together accounted for over 72.58% of all venture capital activities.

Longhua demonstrated remarkable progress in advanced manufacturing transformation, with its GDP growing by 5.6% year-on-year to 315.45 billion yuan in 2024. Strategic emerging industries now constitute 47.1% of its economic output, with advanced manufacturing commanding over 60% of industrial production above designated scale and modern services representing over 60% of tertiary sector activity, respectively.

Industrial milestones proliferated throughout the year: large-scale industrial output surpassed 650 billion yuan, propelling Longhua into China’s top 10 industrial districts for the first time; fixed-asset investments grew 6.8% to exceed 120 billion yuan while retail sales expanded 3.5% to 140.59 billion yuan; the software sector emerged as a dark horse, with IT services revenue breaking 15 billion yuan through 13.5% year-on-year growth --- the second consecutive year of double-digit expansion.

Driving this transformation is Longhua’s dual industrial strategy combining the "1+2+3" advanced manufacturing framework and "3+3+2" modern industrial ecosystem. Digital economy output surged past 560 billion yuan as strategic emerging industries grew 6.1%, led by stellar performances in ultra-HD video displays (+14%), high-end medical devices (+26.7%), and the burgeoning low-altitude and aerospace sector (+42.9%).

Complementing industrial advancement, Longhua’s business-friendly environment has become a growth accelerator. Innovative governance tools like the AI-powered policy calculator and a virtual service platform streamlined 3.6 billion yuan in corporate subsidies to 3,200 enterprises and 790,000 citizens. Financial innovations including the pioneering digital loan mobilized 1.66 billion yuan in industrial funding alongside 3 billion yuan in tax exemption.

As a result, Longhua saw the addition of two listed companies, 10 headquarters enterprises and 81,000 business entities, the transformation of 462 individually-owned businesses to private enterprises, and the upgrade from 180 small-and-medium sized enterprises to firm above designated scale.