Abd Elwahab Guma

MY visit to Shenzhen in May 2025 was no ordinary tour — it was an immersion into the core of China’s modern development model.

From BYD’s green-energy revolution powering millions of EVs, to Leju Robotics’ labs where humanoids are driven by intelligence, through Shenzhen Polytechnic University training tomorrow’s engineers, to the Shenzhen Museum chronicling the “fishing village that changed the world,” and finally to Shenzhen Daily, the city’s English voice to the globe — I saw innovation not as a buzzword, but as a way of life.

Shenzhen is more than a metropolis. It is an experiment in integrated development — merging speed with vision, economy with culture, and local ambition with global responsibility. Born from China’s reform and opening up in 1980, it has risen as “China’s Silicon Valley,” home to Huawei, Tencent, and DJI.

Thus, its selection to host APEC 2026 is no surprise, testifying global acknowledgment of its capacity to embody the Asia-Pacific’s shared future. Shenzhen truly reflects APEC’s core ideals: open cooperation, responsible digital transformation, and inclusive green growth.

When regional leaders gather in Shenzhen, they will find a living model that proves progress need not erase cultural identity, and that innovation can be a bridge, not a barrier.

In this way, Shenzhen fulfills its historic role: China’s window to the world, and an epitome of a future built on cooperation.

I was deeply impressed by the city’s APEC Global Promotion Campaign, which I read about in Shenzhen Daily.