Southern Finance Reporter Sun Jingfang reports from Zhongshan
On March 30, the 2026 Zhongshan Overseas Chinese Investment Conference and the 13th Zhongshan Talent Festival were held at the Zhongshan Hot Spring Hotel. This is the first high-profile investment event in Zhongshan aimed at global overseas Chinese, themed &#34;Using Overseas Chinese as a Bridge, Wisdom Gathers in Zhongshan,&#34; bringing together representatives of overseas Chinese from more than 20 countries and regions, top experts and scholars, and well-known entrepreneurs.
With the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link having been in operation for nearly two years, Zhongshan has already entered the &#34;Shenzhen half-hour living circle,&#34; and the city's location value has undergone a historic reconstruction and upgrade. Relying on a solid foundation of &#34;industrial city, manufacturing as the mainstay,&#34; and supported by three trillion-level and eight hundred billion-level industrial clusters with complete industrial chain matching, Zhongshan is precisely positioning itself in future tracks such as biomedicine and artificial intelligence, attempting to leap from a &#34;transportation hub&#34; to an &#34;industrial highland&#34; and &#34;talent magnet.&#34;
From &#34;Half-Hour Living Circle&#34; to &#34;Industrial Ecological Circle&#34;
The Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link has completely rewritten the spatial and temporal pattern of the east and west coasts of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with Zhongshan leaping from the hinterland of the western Pearl River to become a strategic pivot connecting the Pearl River Estuary Innovation Circle. The &#34;half-hour living circle&#34; brings not only convenient commuting but also the free flow of innovative elements, industrial resources, and capital talent, promoting Zhongshan's transformation from a cost lowland to an innovation highland, completing the value reassessment from a geographical node to the core of an industrial ecological circle.
Relying on the benefits of the link, Zhongshan is precisely positioning itself in two strategic emerging industries: biomedicine and artificial intelligence, constructing a closed-loop industrial ecology through the landing of major projects. At the conference, 46 high-quality projects were signed in 8 batches, covering fields such as talent cultivation, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing, with a number of benchmark projects directly solidifying the industrial foundation.
Hong Kong Xinhua Group is investing 2.5 billion yuan in the Cuixiang New District's Hengmen area to create a comprehensive development project that integrates fishing port culture, leisure tourism, and commercial services, building a demonstration area for the integration of industry and city, injecting strong momentum into the construction of a strong marine economy city. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is co-establishing a Technology Innovation Research Institute with Zhongshan, planning to cultivate 200 master's students in the first year, constructing a full-chain ecology of &#34;talent cultivation + research transformation + entrepreneurship incubation,&#34; and opening up the conversion channel between university achievements and local industries.
In the field of biomedicine, Shanghai Weizhi Zhuo Biotechnology has settled in the Zhongshan Life Science Park, establishing a research and development center for liver therapeutic organoid technology platforms. Its core product, HepaCure bioartificial liver, is in the globally leading Phase II clinical stage, filling the gap in Zhongshan in the fields of high-end cell therapy and regenerative medicine. Meanwhile, the landing of cutting-edge projects such as stem cells and artificial hearts marks that Zhongshan is no longer satisfied with simple manufacturing but is advancing deeply into the &#34;high-precision&#34; research and development end of innovative drugs and cell therapy.
In the artificial intelligence track, Zhongshan shows a clear path dependence. Xie Qinglu, president of Tianji Artificial Intelligence Technology, who worked in Silicon Valley for 15 years, stated that Zhongshan has a solid electronic industry foundation, and what is most needed for developing artificial intelligence is leading talents. Introducing top talents through overseas Chinese business bridges has become Zhongshan's breakthrough strategy. At the afternoon session of the conference, the roundtable meeting for artificial intelligence intention enterprises, companies such as Shanghai Qinglang Intelligent clearly expressed their optimism about Zhongshan's industrial chain matching and cost advantages, planning to layout production bases or research and development centers in South China, relying on Zhongshan's electronic manufacturing foundation to improve &#34;computing power + algorithms + scenarios + manufacturing.&#34;
The AI industry support in Zhongshan. This shows that Zhongshan is trying to find the best combination point for AI industrialization between Shenzhen's &#34;hardcore&#34; technological innovation and its own manufacturing &#34;foundation.&#34;
The &#34;Talent Retention&#34; Logic Behind the Full-Cycle Service Chain
In the era of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor, the cross-city flow of talent has become the norm, and it is essential not only to &#34;attract&#34; but also to &#34;retain and develop&#34; talent. At this conference, Zhongshan launched two landmark initiatives: the cross-city public transport monthly pass for industrial talent and a CNY 400 million Cuihu Fund, establishing a full-cycle talent service chain covering attraction, cultivation, retention, and utilization.
To solve the &#34;dual-city commuting&#34; problem, Zhongshan introduced the cross-city public transport monthly pass for industrial talent, offering a 50% discount for recognized industrial talents, covering three core cross-city special lines such as T01A and T01B. This detail reflects a shift in Zhongshan's talent strategy: as the &#34;war for talent&#34; enters its second half, the key to retaining talent is no longer simply financial subsidies, but rather creating a &#34;low-friction&#34; livable and workable environment, enhancing the city's attractiveness to high-end talent through refined services.
Alongside the monthly pass, the Cuihu Fund's &#34;Global Dreamers&#34; recruitment program, with a total scale of CNY 400 million, focuses on key industries in Zhongshan such as health care, new energy, and information technology, providing &#34;capital + industry&#34; dual empowerment for high-level talent projects. The fund not only offers financial support but also connects industrial chain resources, application scenarios, and market channels, enabling talent entrepreneurship to transition from &#34;technically feasible&#34; to &#34;market successful,&#34; using financial power to support innovative dreams.
In terms of the talent introduction system, Zhongshan continues to expand its global talent network, appointing overseas elites such as Xi Ning and Xie Wenjian as global talent consultants, with the total number exceeding one hundred, covering universities, enterprises, and leading industry organizations, forming a &#34;network&#34; that connects global talents. At the same time, it appointed Chen Junlong, an academician of the European Academy of Sciences, and Zhang Youming, a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as &#34;Zhongshan Special Experts,&#34; providing top-level intellectual support for industrial upgrading.
Reconstructing the Value of the Overseas Chinese Business Network
As a famous hometown of overseas Chinese, Zhongshan's extensive global resources of overseas Chinese serve as a natural bridge connecting domestic and international dual circulation. At this conference, Zhongshan moved beyond relying solely on overseas Chinese businesses for investment attraction, promoting the upgrade of the overseas Chinese business network from trade intermediaries to global platforms, brand carriers, and cooperation hubs, achieving a value reconstruction from &#34;product going abroad&#34; to &#34;brand going abroad,&#34; allowing &#34;Zhongshan manufacturing&#34; to evolve into &#34;Zhongshan branding.&#34;
At the conference, Zhongshan established new &#34;China (Zhongshan) Quality Goods Exhibition and Trade Centers&#34; in six countries, including Nigeria (Lagos) and Norway (Oslo), creating an integrated platform for overseas display, trade, and promotion. The Nigeria Exhibition and Trade Center leverages the overseas Chinese business's 20 years of resources in the African market to precisely meet local demands, promoting the customized export and localized production of Zhongshan's quality products such as small appliances and solar products, while attracting overseas Chinese funds, technology, and projects back to Zhongshan, forming a virtuous cycle of &#34;product going abroad + investment coming in.&#34;
Currently, Zhongshan has established exhibition and trade centers in multiple countries worldwide and has formed a &#34;Overseas Chinese + Business Trade&#34; cooperation alliance with 24 overseas business associations, weaving a broad and efficient global business network, transforming overseas Chinese businesses from &#34;going it alone&#34; to &#34;banding together for empowerment,&#34; injecting the energy of the hometown into &#34;Guangdong goods going global.&#34;
Li Zhenjie, president of the Norwegian Guangdong Chamber of Commerce, suggested that Zhongshan should focus on green technology, marine economy, and high-end manufacturing when connecting with the Nordic market, with high standards and high quality as the core. The shift should be from product export to brand going overseas and technology cooperation, while simultaneously deepening the two-way exchange of high-end scientific research talents, relying on the bridge of overseas Chinese businessmen to achieve resource complementarity and collaborative development.
Zheng Zhijian, president of the Nigeria Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Association, which has been deeply engaged in Africa for 20 years, stated that Zhongshan's small household appliances and photovoltaic products are highly recognized in Africa. The overseas exhibition and trade center is promoting the systematic export of products, with bulk orders already sent to Africa. &#34;Zhongshan's product quality is solid and fully capable of creating independent brands in Africa.&#34;

Zhongshan held its first Overseas Chinese Investment Conference on March 30, themed "Using Overseas Chinese as a Bridge, Wisdom Gathers in Zhongshan." The conference attracted overseas Chinese and experts from more than 20 countries worldwide, aiming to promote the development of emerging industries such as biomedicine and artificial intelligence. Zhongshan, leveraging the transportation advantages of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, strives to transform from a "transportation hub" to an "industrial highland." The conference signed 46 projects, covering talent cultivation and industrial development, promoting Zhongshan's transformation into an innovation highland

Zhongshan's "Golden Positioning Battle": Using Overseas Chinese as a Bridge, Precisely Targeting Biomedicine and Artificial Intelligence