The low-altitude economy industry ushered in a period of intensive policy publication. On November 5, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held the first plenary meeting of the Low Altitude Industry Development Leading Group to study and deploy key tasks to promote the high-quality development of the low-altitude industry.

The conference emphasized the active and steady development of the low-altitude industry and the creation of a new model for industrialization. It is necessary to carry out top-level planning, plan the layout of the low-altitude equipment innovation system, industrial system, and low-altitude information infrastructure construction, and create a good ecosystem for industry development.

On the same day, the Shenzhen Municipal Transportation Bureau solicited comments on the implementation rules of “Certain Measures to Support High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy in Shenzhen”.

The draft for solicitation of comments proposes a specific subsidy plan. The total amount of funding in 2024 will not exceed 0.16 billion yuan, 2025 will not exceed 0.22 billion yuan, and 2026 will not exceed 0.21 billion yuan, and the amount of funding will not be transferred from year to year.

Funding projects include funding for low-altitude economy enterprises to settle in, airworthiness certification support for eVTOL aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles, funding for expanding the size of the low-altitude logistics market, funding for the opening of general short-haul transport routes, funding for cultivating new urban transportation formats, funding for low-altitude infrastructure construction, funding for high-end innovation carriers, and funding for exchange and promotion activities. The plan clarifies funding conditions and standards, application and disbursement of funding, performance, supervision and management, etc., and regulates the execution and management of funding funds.

Shenzhen is a pioneer in promoting the low-altitude industry. The city launched an active low-altitude development plan at the end of 2022, proposing to achieve 0.03 million low-altitude manned flights by 2025. At present, the relevant departments in Shenzhen have basically completed site selection for the first batch of take-off and landing sites, which will be announced to the public at the end of 2024. Next, they will also begin site selection for the second batch of take-off and landing sites.

In addition to Shenzhen, various local governments in China have responded positively to national policies, and several provinces have made arrangements to develop a low-altitude economy in response to government work reports. According to the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, since the fourth quarter, various favorable policies have been implemented intensively, and auxiliary measures have continued to be improved —

On November 4, the General Office of the People's Government of Shandong Province issued the “Three-Year Action Plan for High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy in Shandong Province (2025-2027)”. It is proposed to build provincial integrated flight service stations and more than 3 municipal low-altitude flight management service platforms, build 35 general purpose airports and 400 digital low-altitude aircraft take-off and landing platforms; form more than 10 benchmark application scenarios, open more than 50 intra-city drone routes and more than 20 intercity drone logistics routes, achieve normalized flight of cargo drones, and commercialized flight of manned drones; cultivate more than 10 leading enterprises in the industry chain, more than 100 technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises, specialized enterprises and “single champions” in the manufacturing industry, the scale of the low-altitude economy It reached 100 billion dollars.

The Yangpu District Government of Shanghai recently issued “Certain Measures to Promote the Development of the Low-Altitude Economy in Yangpu District (Trial)”; on October 31, the Shanghai Low Air Weather Innovation Demonstration Zone was unveiled. It is proposed that by 2027, the Jinshan District Meteorological Administration, with the joint support of the Shanghai Meteorological Administration and the Jinshan District Government, will provide a full range of low altitude weather solutions for Shanghai to become an internationally influential “Sky City” based on the overall layout of the low-altitude economy in Shanghai and surrounding regions and the “Shanghai Low Altitude Flight Demonstration Zone” construction plan.

On October 19, the “Suzhou Low Altitude Flight Service Management Measures (Trial)” was officially released and will be officially implemented on December 1, 2024.

On October 16, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Lee Ka-chiu, stated that the HKSAR Government will set up a “Working Group on Developing a Low-Altitude Economy”.

It is worth noting that previously, on October 18, the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter learned from various sources that the relevant ministries and departments of the country are planning to establish a special department to control the low-altitude economy. A person familiar with the matter told the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter that the establishment of the Special Bureau for Low Altitude Economy has been approved and is currently being prepared. According to the above sources, the more important meaning of setting up a special management unit is to adapt to the development needs of new quality productivity and can better collaborate with resources from various links to promote industrial development.

Dongwu Securities said that at present, all regions have issued local action plans and plans for low-altitude economic development, while plans at the national level have not yet been released. If future national-level plans can be implemented, it is expected that they will provide more specific quantitative indicators in terms of setting specific development goals, implementation paths, and technical directions, and give guidance on the industrial layout of key low-altitude economic regions such as Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, Cheng-Chongqing, and the Yangtze River Delta.

2025 may usher in a wave of orders in the low-altitude sector

Currently, many low-altitude economic construction projects have passed the filing. According to incomplete statistics from the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”:

On October 26, the Taihu Bay Wuxi Low Altitude Economy Innovation and Development Conference was held. Wuxi City announced “Certain Policies and Measures to Support the High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy”. The on-site contract amount reached 30.2 billion yuan;

The total investment of the low-altitude economic and industrial integration development and construction project in Maoming City, Guangdong Province is 1.95 billion yuan. The construction includes production and operation networks (construction of low-altitude agricultural plant protection systems), infrastructure networks (low-altitude economic infrastructure supporting facilities), aviation consumer networks (low-altitude economic agricultural cultural tourism smart facilities, demonstration base for integrated applications in low-altitude scenarios), and public service networks (low-altitude rescue and public service system construction);

The total investment of the low-altitude digital economy industrial park project in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province is about 0.5 billion yuan, and it has also been approved. The main construction includes investment promotion for enterprises in the drone industry chain and service network services such as remote sensing surveying and mapping, providing intelligent service solutions in natural resource management, urban governance, smart agriculture and forestry;

The total investment of the low-altitude economic supporting industrial park project in Yuecheng District, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province is about 1.92 billion yuan. It is planned to introduce projects such as electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing to build a low-altitude intelligent manufacturing base. In the same period, the Xuchang (Henan) Low Altitude Economic Industrial Park project in Henan Province and the Kaifeng Low Altitude Economic Development Project have also been registered and approved.

Entering November, several exhibitions are about to be unveiled around the low-altitude economy, and the industry is expected to clash with new voices. Among them, the Zhuhai Air Show will be held on November 12-17. According to the official website of the Zhuhai Air Show, the low-altitude economy hall was set up for the first time at this air show to focus on showcasing low-altitude operation monitoring platforms and innovative application scenarios. Xiaopeng Huitian's “land aircraft carrier” will also unveil manned flight for the first time on the 12th.

Dongwu Securities said that the implementation of national departments and top-level designs will promote the construction of low-altitude economic infrastructure and the continued implementation of application scenarios, so general lead units and product manufacturers expected to receive direct order support in various regions will be the first to benefit. At the same time, some enterprises belonging to central enterprises are expected to benefit from state-owned enterprise reforms and priority recommendations.

Huachuang Securities divided the low-altitude economy into four segments: logic; products; order volume; mergers, acquisitions and restructuring, indicating that it will enter the third phase. It is expected that the core driver for the third phase is “order volume, and it is believed that 2025 may usher in a wave of orders in the low-altitude sector. Among companies with products, whose products are truly competitive and can open up the market will attract more focused attention from the market.

Edit/rice