■ Duan Shujun

On April 7, Guangdong's low-altitude economic development ushered in another landmark event. The Civil Aviation Administration of China officially issued a production license for the EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft system to Guangzhou Yihang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., which is the first production license in the global eVTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing Aircraft) industry.

Currently, low-altitude economy is becoming a new track. The recently released "Implementation Plan for Innovative Application of General Aviation Equipment (2024-2030)" proposes that by 2030, China will have a trillion-level market size of the general aviation industry. The 2024 "Government Work Report" will include low-altitude economy for the first time and use it as an emerging industry and future industry to create a new growth engine. Many places have seized opportunities for low-altitude economic development and intensively introduced policies to support low-altitude economic development.

Guangdong is the forerunner of China's low-altitude economy and has a solid industrial foundation. At present, Guangdong consumer-grade drones account for 90% of the country and more than 70% of the world, giving birth to a number of leading enterprises, such as DJI, Yihang Intelligence, Xiaopeng and so on. In recent years, Guangdong has taken frequent policies and measures to promote low-altitude economic development. The 14th five-year Plan for the High-quality Development of Guangdong's Manufacturing Industry proposes to rely on Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai to break through key technologies such as UAV special chips, flight control systems, power systems, sensors, and so on, to expand and strengthen the UAV industry, and promote innovation and application in logistics and other major industries. As the "capital of drones", Shenzhen issued the first local legislation on low-altitude economy in the country, the regulations on the Promotion of low-altitude economy Industry in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, and issued a number of measures for Shenzhen to support the high-quality development of low-altitude economy. Vigorously cultivate urban air traffic new business type. Guangzhou City issued the "Guangzhou low-altitude Economic Development Plan" and "Guangzhou low-altitude Economic Development implementation Plan" to promote the construction of low-altitude digital airspace and intelligence network. Zhuhai has formulated a number of measures to support the high-quality development of the low-altitude economy, focusing on cultivating the industrial ecology of the low-altitude economy and promoting the strong, complementary and extended industrial chain of the low-altitude economy.

This year, Guangdong proposed to accelerate the cultivation and expansion of emerging industries and advance the layout of future industries, including the low-altitude economy, with the goal of setting new 500 billion and trillion-level industrial clusters.