Dongguan, China – November 3, 2026 – The 2026 Dongguan Private Entrepreneurs’ Day and Guan merchant (overseas Chinese businessmen) conference opened at the city’s conference building, the first time the three events have been merged. The 2026 Dongguan Global Cloud Investment Conference was launched at the same time, bringing more than 1,000 Guan merchants, overseas Chinese business people, leading companies and experts to renew hometown ties, discuss cooperation and open the city’s investment opportunities to the world.

Dongguan, an “internationally renowned manufacturing city,” runs on private enterprise, which makes up more than 90% of its market entities. Nearly 250,000 overseas Chinese of Dongguan origin live in more than 50 countries and regions, in over 120 associations and chambers of commerce. Titled “Business Links the Four Seas, Smart Innovation Creates the Future,” it put entrepreneurs front and center, joining local roots, global networks and overseas bridges in a “1+1+1>3” effort.

Building platforms for synergy, cultivating soil that respects and embraces business

Dongguan has set Nov. 1 as Private Entrepreneurs’ Day since 2023, honoring private entrepreneurs in the name of the city and opening routine government-business communication.

At the Guan Merchant Business Academy lecture, Gao Zhikai, deputy director of the Center for Global Studies and director of the Institute of China Energy Security, spoke on shifts in global trade and paths for companies going overseas. Dongguan, Shenzhen and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area have all benefited from free trade, he said, and “Business Links the Four Seas” is itself an expression of it.

That morning, the Dongguan Federation of Guan Merchant Associations elected a new board of directors and supervisors, choosing Chen Jianmin, founder of Guangdong Zhongtu Semiconductor Technology Co., as president; the board was inaugurated that evening.

The Guan Merchant Development and Culture Exhibition Center also opened, in the Guan Merchant Home. Covering about 1,000 square meters, it uses artifacts, recreated scenes and multimedia to trace a thousand years of Guan merchant trading history.

Towns, subdistricts and industrial parks hosted more than 100 supporting events that collected companies’ needs and turned policy, orders and resources into concrete results.

Focusing on new quality productive forces, a batch of quality industrial projects is signed

A total of 39 projects were signed during the conference, with intended investment of nearly 22 billion yuan, concentrating on semiconductors and integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, new materials, new energy and next-generation electronic information across Songshan Lake, Houjie, Fenggang and other towns and parks.

Dongguan also presented six newly established key industrial funds, part of a state-owned capital fund matrix of more than 200 billion yuan across more than 150 funds covering the city’s “8+8+4” modern industrial system.

A service matrix for companies going global, arranged as “one center at home, one network abroad,” was released to help Dongguan companies expand overseas together and push “Made in Dongguan” into broader markets through Guan merchant and overseas Chinese channels.

Work by private enterprises under the “hundred counties, thousand towns and myriad villages” project was also released: Guan merchants and overseas Chinese business people have put more than 10 billion yuan into rural revitalization in five years, over 9 billion yuan of it in consumption support and more than 1 billion yuan in donations.

Online and offline in step, cloud investment promotion opens a new model

The Global Cloud Investment Conference moves investment promotion from one-off gatherings to regular online operation. It will be livestreamed worldwide at 10 a.m. Nov. 2 China time, when the “Dongguan Investment Environment” white paper will be released and investment leads from around the world will continue to be followed up.

In the first three quarters, Dongguan signed 432 new industrial projects with total investment of 175.86 billion yuan, up 43.9%. Imports and exports rose 10.9% to 1.29 trillion yuan, a record for the period, with Dongguan holding its place as China’s fifth-largest foreign trade center.

“Scattered, we are stars across the sky; gathered, we are one blazing fire”: attendees called the merger not just a change of format but a reassembly of the city’s human and business resources.

Voices from the conference

Huang Jianping, chairman of the Dongguan Federation of Industry and Commerce and of Marco Polo Holdings: Dongguan’s business environment is fertile soil for private enterprises. Business-supporting policies are landing and factor guarantees are strengthening, giving companies confidence to invest and innovate. I hope compatriots elsewhere will return to seize opportunities and share resources, and the federation will keep acting as the “family home” of private entrepreneurs.

Chen Jianmin, president of the Dongguan Federation of Guan Merchant Associations: The new session will build a community of feeling, business and development for Guan merchants worldwide, keep them committed to the real economy and new quality productive forces, run the Guan Merchant Home and exhibition center, cultivate young merchants and attract investment and talent.

Man Kam Kau, standing committee member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and chairman of Goodview Holdings Group Investment Ltd.: The merged conference has built an important platform for Dongguan-Hong Kong linkage. Hong Kong business people will serve as a bridge in technology empowerment, investment promotion and brands going overseas, and we will guide more young people to help build their hometown.

Kuo San-Hui, former president of the National Association of Enterprises with Investment from Taiwan (China) and chairman of Taylor International Group Holdings Ltd.: Business people from Taiwan have been participants in and beneficiaries of Dongguan’s economic construction, in education, health care, exhibitions and industrial parks. They will keep putting down roots here and build bridges of cross-strait cooperation.

Zhang Yuchong, vice chairman of the Dongguan Federation of Industry and Commerce and controlling shareholder of Guangdong Zhongsheng Pharmaceutical Group: An enterprise’s growth moves in step with its city. As a new generation of private entrepreneurs, we will carry on the pragmatic, daring Guan merchant spirit, keep raising research investment and bring medical breakthroughs to people’s lives.

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