On 27 November, Feng Xingya, general manager of Guangzhou Automobile Group, delivered a keynote speech titled “Technological Advancement, Talent-Driven Growth, and GAC's Future Development” at the Opening Ceremony of the Asia Youth Leaders Forum 2021.

The full speech is as below.

Dear President Wu, ladies, and gentlemen,

Good morning, everyone! I'm honored to participate in today's conference. As a senior youth, I'm very happy to have the opportunity to communicate with young friends on technological advancement, talent-driven growth, and future development of GAC.

Firstly, science and technology leads the development of a new era, and automobiles have become the new innovation incubator. From the age of steam to the age of electricity, and then to the age of information, the core strength of every leapfrog in the progress of human civilization comes from innovation in science and technology. Nowadays with increasing pressures from population, resources, and the environment across the globe, the old path of factor-driven development has become unsustainable. China is accelerating its shift to an economic development model led by technological innovation. During this period, Intelligent vehicles are widely integrating with disruptive underlying technologies such as new energy, new materials, 5G, big data, AI, and so on. Following smart phones, intelligent vehicles are becoming the next incubator for technological innovation and shaper of the industry ecosystem. At present, intelligent vehicles are promoting technological breakthroughs and commercial applications; opening up and reshaping all aspects of information, energy, transportation, and even social life; and leading to a new industry ecosystem, business models, and economic growth points.

Secondly, development of intelligent vehicles relies on the youth, and the auto industry has become a fertile ground for youth innovation. First of all, the youth spearheads new trends and stimulates new drives of transformation by innovation. The youth has become the primary consumer of automobiles. In China, the group under the age of 35 accounts for more than 60% of car purchases. In the era of intelligent vehicles, cars are increasingly a high-tech consumer goods. Young people’s request for intelligence, change of aesthetics, and change of information access are accelerating the pace of smarter automotive products, younger design, and digitalization of information. It's also accelerating the transformation of traditional car companies towards technological and user-oriented enterprises.

On the other hand, groups of young people have become the backbone of the auto industry and the main force of innovation, especially in the field of intelligent connectivity. At GAC Research Institute, R&D staff under the age of 35 is close to 70%, and R&D staff under the age of 55 is 99%. Among R&D practitioners, those with master's and doctor's degree account for about 43%. A young man in his 30s can already be a director or even a VP, which obviously differs from the past. Their ideas and creativity directly affect the final function and form of the products, promoting the industry to accelerate innovation.

In addition, the intelligent vehicle industry flourishes, along with talent requirements "from hardware to software". With the accelerated development of intelligent vehicles, technology giants and internet companies are crossing over to this industry and have formed car-making teams. Startups have sprung up, and active investment and financing in the primary and secondary markets are very active, providing young people with a broad stage. The main talent requirement has shifted from conventional vehicle and mechanical engineering to computers, electronics, and information, with inter-disciplinary and versatile talents in great demand. In the manufacturing field, versatile talents with IT, communications, and AI backgrounds are particularly in demand. In the field of marketing, there is a surging demand for talents in account management, digital marketing, and product experience. In the field of R&D of intelligent connectivity, talents are scarcer, with demand for talents expected to grow at a rate of 14% over the next five years, leaving a net shortfall of 37,000 even under optimistic conditions, which is equivalent to 70% of the current R&D personnel of intelligent connected vehicles. 

Thirdly, GAC attracts young talents worldwide to establish an innovation hub. As a large-scale automobile group ranked No. 176 in the Fortune Global 500, over the past 24 years, young talents have always been the long-term strategy and lifeline of GAC’s development. At present, the total number of employees in GAC exceeds 100,000. 77,000 employees are under the age of 35, accounting for more than 75% of the total, and the average age is 31. In the face of this once-in-a-century technological transformation, GAC has always been focusing on internal nurturing and external recruitment of talents, to join hands with young talents and create the future of intelligent vehicles. The first of such measures is smart incentives and platform building to reinforce the ability to nurture young talents. We empathize with the huge housing pressure young people feel in big cities, so we invested 12 billion yuan in the motor town of GAC Intelligent Connected & New Energy Automobile Industry Park, building 4,600 commercial flats for employees and selling them at cost price, in order to transfer "employees" to "partners". Over the past three years, more than 3,000 backbone employees have been granted stock options, equaling more than 500 million yuan per year. In order to help talents fully express their innovative ideas, we've established a special taskforce for high-caliber young talents for direct dialogue with talents at any time. In addition, through the establishment of internal training institutions, as well as joint training with universities and private training institutions, we have built a relatively complete internal training system for young talents.

In September last year, GAC and its employees jointly established Guangzhou Greater Bay Technology Co., Ltd., dedicated to the research and development of superfast charging power batteries and new-generation energy storage technologies. In just six months, the number of staff in the team has expanded from the initial 10 people to 100 people at present. In March this year, the first round of financing worth hundreds of millions of yuan was completed, and the company's valuation is as high as 8 billion yuan. We share what we create with the young employees through stock ownership incentives. The translation of innovation capability of young talent to wealth has also been maximized on this platform.

The second measure is "inviting in" and "going out" to attract global leading young talents. World-class companies must be able to attract, retain, and make good use of talents on a global scale. In recent years, GAC has organized investment companies to conduct overseas recruitment in Germany, the US, Canada, and other countries, attracting the participation of thousands of overseas young talents and recruiting more than 100 elites. For leading talents, we implement a case-by-case system and provide market-competitive salary and benefits. So far, GAC has recruited more than 500 overseas young talent and formed an international R&D team consisting of nearly 200 young talent. In 2020, GAC was granted as a National Innovative Talent Development Demonstration Base by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People´s Republic of China. In the future, GAC plans to form a high-quality R&D talent system of intelligent connectivity with 3,000 staff, including more than 30 leading talent and 20% software talent by 2025.

Thanks to the continuous advancement of the youth talent strategy, the research and development level of GAC is currently at the forefront among domestic auto-makers, and the innovation hub of the intelligent vehicle industry is taking shape. The first manifestation is the continuously reinforcing innovation vitality. At present, accumulated patent applications have exceeded 8,400, among which nearly 3,000 are invention patents, which ranks at the forefront of domestic auto-makers. Over the past 16 years, with young staff as the main attendees, the innovation program "IGA (Innovation GAC)" has attracted more than 600,000 participants with 5.3 million proposals collected, creating direct economic benefits of more than 9.5 billion yuan. The direct economic benefit reached 1.433 billion yuan in 2021. This fully stimulates the vitality of the enterprise and the creativity of young employees. 

The second manifestation is the accelerating application of tech achievements. Facing the arrival of the age of electrification, with the support of ultra-fast charging and battery-swap technologies, we will promote "the energy action" to achieve the followings: batteries can be purchased or rented, charged or swapped, slow- or fast-charged; the capacity can be small or large; the range can be long or short; the energy can be grid-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-grid; it can be recycled or used in cascades. This will effectively resolve the problem of charging convenience and provide more additional value beyond expectation to the users. The battery-swap version of all models developed based on the new GEP 3.0 platform will be put on the market in succession starting from 2023.

The third manifestation is comprehensive brand advancement. GAC Motor and GAC Aion have released more than 20 models, constituting a comprehensive product portfolio, and the image of younger products is becoming increasingly apparent. In October, EMPOW, which targets young people, sold more than 10,000 units. Nearly 70% of GAC Aion’s users are under the age of 35, and the orders for Aion Y full electric vehicle, another car that targets young people, exceeded 10,000 units in October.

Dear friends, in the new era dominated by technology, the intelligent vehicle industry is accelerating its development, and there is unprecedented focus on and desire for young talent. GAC also cordially welcomes all young people, especially young people from Asia to join GAC, to develop new industries and create new chapters.