Areas in Shenzhen Bay, Qianhai Bay, and Futian District have been designated as three of the 10 industrial clusters of AI (artificial intelligence) technologies in Shenzhen. This announcement was made by the city government during the Beijing-Shenzhen Industrial Cooperation Meeting, held in Beijing on Tuesday.

The other seven AI industrial clusters are located in the Xili-Shiyan area, the Bantian area, and the Universiade area in Longgang, the Longhua Central Axis area, Qingshuihe in Luohu District, Pingshan’s high-tech zone, and Guangming Science Town.

The city government has prioritized the development of AI technologies and released an action plan July 30.

“Shenzhen has been making every effort to create a comprehensive ecosystem featuring software development and the evolving landscape of the AI sector by providing policy and financial assistance while leveraging its industrial strengths,” said Lin Yi, vice director of the Shenzhen Municipal Industry and Information Technology Bureau.

Shenzhen led the country in the China Software Development Index, which was released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology at the beginning of this year.

The software sector has been one of Shenzhen’s industrial pillars. Four of the software parks are located in Nanshan, two in Longgang, and one each in Futian, Luohu, Bao’an, and Longhua districts. Together, they are home to approximately 400 national-level software enterprises.

In addition to robust infrastructure, these software parks offer specialized and high-standard services tailored to specific sectors. Notably, the Tian’an Yungu Industrial Park in Bantian was designed with a focus on cloud computing, big data, and mobile internet. It has built the country’s first smart production and urban community, attracting the Consumer Business Group of Huawei Technologies to set up operations there.

In recent years, Huawei has actively developed its Harmony operating system (Harmony OS), leading to the emergence of a thriving ecosystem of native applications that cover various life and office scenarios in Shenzhen.

According to official statistics, a total of 49 software companies had participated in the development of the Harmony OS by the end of 2023, resulting in the creation of 133 apps. The number of local software companies engaging with the Harmony ecosystem is expected to continue growing this year.

Shenzhen has nurtured many of the country’s leading software enterprises, like Huawei and Kingdee, within its industrial parks, where a number of specialized and sophisticated small and medium-sized software companies are flourishing.