Themed on "SPARK for Promoting Transformation, Digital Intelligence to Help Huadu Bloom", an on-site plaque awarding and contract signing event was recently held at Shiling Leather Profession Chamber of Commerce, aiming to promote the high-quality development of Shiling leather industry using digital empowerment and intellectual property services. The event was guided by the Guangzhou Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, jointly organized by the Huadu District Administration for Market Regulation and the Shiling Town People's Government, and co-organized by the Shiling Leather Profession Chamber of Commerce.

At the event, the relevant leaders of the Guangzhou Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, Huadu District, and the responsible officials of Huadu District Administration for Market Regulation and Shiling Town jointly awarded the plaques of "Spark Program Digital Empowerment Service Station" and "Intellectual Property Rights Protection Assistance and Protection Workstation" to the Shiling Leather Profession Chamber of Commerce. This is Guangzhou's first "SPARK Service Station" and "Intellectual Property Protection Workstation" for vertical assistance under the "Hundred, Thousand, and Ten Thousand" project. The establishment of the two stations will not only provide dual thrusts of digital transformation and intellectual property promotion and protection for Shiling leather industry, but also become a key factor to support regional interconnected development and be more vibrant through access to the network.

Digitalization empowers the leather industry of Shiling

Also at the event, a cooperation framework agreement was signed among Huadu District Administration for Market Regulation, Shiling Leather Profession Chamber of Commerce e-commerce enterprises, aiming to promote cooperation of "government + e-commerce enterprises+ chamber of commerce" to jointly promote the high-quality development of Huadu's network economy by digitally empowering Shiling's leather industry, strengthening innovative development of the platform economy, and improving the regulatory system .

"The creation of the 'SPARK Service Station' and the 'Intellectual Property Protection Workstation' is highly consistent with the work deployment of the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government on promoting regional interconnected development, and will inject new momentum into the integrated development of urban and rural areas." The relevant official in charge of Guangzhou Municipal Administration for Market Regulation expressed hope that Huadu District would adhere to integrated development, accelerate digital, networked and intelligent development of industries, encourage and guide industry associations and platform enterprises to exercise their empowerment functions accurately, and make full use of new technologies, new forms of business and new business models to accelerate the new development of Huadu Shiling leather industry, and increase industrial income; would adhere to innovative services, rely on innovations in technology, system and others to build a new development pattern, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, increase the added value of products, improve the competitiveness and reputation of Shiling leather, and secure a greater say for the it in the market; and would adhere to internal and external interaction, stimulate domestic demand by increasing varieties, improving quality, and creating brands of green, fashionable and high-quality products, develop new technologies for the high-quality development of a bigger and stronger leather industry.

As a precious pearl of traditional manufacturing, Huadu leather industry has always played a very important role in the economic development of the District. Nowadays, the leather industry has undergone profound changes in all aspects from production and design to sales; in the face of the challenges of the new era, the traditional production model and market environment have been insufficient to meet the current high-level, personalized needs; so the promotion of digital transformation has become an inevitable choice for the leather industry to survive and the only possible way to achieve high-quality development. "Digital economy has become a new engine for economic growth. The purpose of holding this event is to build a platform for exchange and cooperation that may further build consensus and gather strength for joint exploration of new paths and new models for the digital transformation of the leather industry, and for the indepth development of digital transformation in the leather industry. We are convinced that with your support, we will work together to bring Huadu's leather industry into a more brilliant tomorrow,” the relevant leader of Huadu District said.

Create a China leather capital of high-end fashion

Huadu District Administration for Market Regulation has in recent years carried out a series of "SPARK for Promoting Transformation" government-enterprise cooperation activities and pushed forward pilot work on innovations of intellectual property protection mechanism, paid great attention to the pairing and mutual promotion and the vertical assistance between regions, guiding domestic large-scale e-commerce platforms, MCN institutions, and integrated marketing service providers of e-commerce content to help and support businesses in its jurisdiction, and reached a tripartite cooperation intention among "government + platform + chamber of commerce" on digital upgrading and transformation; all these effectively injected strong impetus into the high-quality development of Guangzhou's traditional industries through digital empowerment. In 2024, Huadu District continued to optimize the supply of full-chain intellectual property services, launched the city's first district-level ISO56005 pilot project for the implementation of international standards for intellectual property management, and was successfully approved by the National Intellectual Property Administration as a pilot area for rapid handling of intellectual property disputes (the only one in Guangdong province), and built a fast IPR protection service center, a "one-stop" comprehensive rights protection platform that serves the leather industry in the northern part of Guangzhou.

With trademarks registered in 19 countries, an annual output of more than 700 million leather bags and an annual transaction volume of more than 50 billion yuan, Huadu Shiling's leather industry, the history of which can be traced back to the first handicraft workshop in 1978, has transformed from OEM production to the independent brand creation, and innovation has always been the most prominent feature of Shiling leather goods in its way to the world stage. At the just-concluded 136th Canton Fair, Huadu Shiling leather goods and bags not only attracted the world's attention, but also set a new vane of the world trend with its unique design and novel functions. And this would have been impossible without the strong support of digital transformation. Digital transformation not only provides new sales channels to end users for the leather industry, but also inspires new development ideas for Huadu Shiling leather goods to achieve daily renewal and innovation. Riding the wave of the new era, Huadu Shiling will closely follow the trend of market and consumer demand. Seizing the opportunity of the launch of the "SPARK Service Station" and the "Intellectual Property Protection Workstation", and taking the cooperation with major e-commerce platforms as a new starting point, the town will empower the industry's upgrade from "skilled manufacturing" to "digital intelligent manufacturing", and from "fighting alone" to "collaborative operation". And Huadu District will also pushed "Hundred, Thousand, and Ten Thousand" project as the umbrella program to continuously optimize the business environment, deepen the cooperation model of "government + platform + chamber of commerce", improve the service quality, and actively explore more new industrial development models in line with local development characteristics, help small and medium-sized enterprises to grow bigger and stronger, and eventually build a China leather capital of high-end fashion.

As the digital economy brings new opportunities to traditional industries, how can the leather industry actively connect and deeply integrate with the e-commerce industry to stimulate new vitality of traditional industries, and find new business opportunities? At the event, representatives of e-commerce companies and leather goods companies introduced respectively the policies intended for the transformation and upgrading of the traditional Shiling leather industry through digital empowerment, and shared their experience in the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries through digital empowerment; and the relevant persons in charge of the Intellectual Property Section of the District Administration for Market Regulation and the fast IPR protection service center gave a detailed presentation on the intellectual property backed financing, policies for prioritized patent pre-examination, and other matters.