Guangfo Road, connected to Guangzhou on one end and Foshan on the other end, connects industrial parks and villages scattered in the Pearl River Delta.

Yanfeng Village, Nanhai District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province, located along Guangfo Road, was renamed as a community through "village conversion" in 2011, but it still retains rural collective economic organizations and becomes a rural residential area that is different from urban communities. It has become a "billion-yuan village" 10 years ago.

How can the industry survive when it is large?

This year's Central Document No. 1 proposes to develop a new type of rural collective economy according to local conditions. In Foshan, a new round of exploration has been launched in the countryside that "get rich first". Zhong Xiaowei, secretary of the Party Committee of Yanfeng Community, said: "The arrival of professional managers is equivalent to 'secondary blood' for the countryside."

In the 1980s, the industry in the Pearl River Delta developed rapidly, and Foshan and other places gradually formed a development model of building factories and collecting rents on collective land with their location advantages. Today, there are 87 villages and communities with annual collective economy income of over 100 million yuan in Foshan.

The initial development of scrap metal recycling, melting casting and cotton processing. Later, doors, windows, hardware and mechanical processing enterprises built factories here. Yan Feng's collective income exceeded 100 million yuan, all from leasing income. This development model has continued to this day.

This is not unique to Yan Feng. Taking Nanhai District as an example, most rural collective economy relies on the rental of land, factories, shops, etc., and rental income accounts for more than 87.47% of the total collective income.

How to better develop the new rural collective economy and bring new vitality to the collective economy?

In early 2024, after being selected by Foshan City, 30 professional managers composed of backbones of state-owned enterprises in Foshan City and district went deep into the vast countryside, striving to bring new vitality to the collective economy.

As one of the first batch of professional managers, Zhu Chun and Li Jihuang from Foshan state-owned enterprise Guangdong Tanzhou International Convention and Exhibition Co., Ltd. came to Yanfeng Agricultural Co., Ltd.

Yan Feng established this company to connect with the market with the company as the main body, make intensive use of the local 1,700 acres of agricultural land, and find a new way to increase income.

As soon as a professional manager took office, he found a problem. The company they want to take over is still in its infancy, with neither products nor business sources, and even a company system has not been established.

In Yan Feng, many people are also confused: they rely on rent on weekdays and have a lot of collective income. Local cadres basically have no experience in running a business and do not understand modern business operations. Can they change with just one or two professional managers?

Zhu Chun and Li Jihuang did not retreat: "We are not here to share the cake, but to make new cakes." They walked all over Yan Feng, grinding their mouths and finding out their wealth. Then, they went around the surrounding factories, rice factories, and food factories to open up the supply and demand path for Yan Feng's agricultural products.

In January this year, Yanfeng Agricultural Company took advantage of the trend to create an agricultural exhibition hall to exhibit and sell high-quality agricultural products from all over the country, expanding its source of income.

The advantages of professional managers’ “mother’s family” cannot be wasted. With the efforts of Zhu Chun and Li Jihuang, the agricultural company has joined the line with Tanzhou Exhibition and Convention Company, which is engaged in large-scale exhibition activities, and has negotiated ticketing agency, study and other businesses. In Yan Feng, these are the first time in the first place.

Seeing the achievements made by Zhu Chun and Li Jihuang, Ye Jianming, deputy president of Xiaodong Yi Co., Ltd., inspiration: "For Yan Feng, the most critical role of professional managers is not a change in their pockets, but a change in their heads."

Everyone's recognition of professional managers is increasing day by day. "It has broadened the sales channels of products and opened up the ideas for collective economic development." said Jiang Xun, deputy director of the Agricultural and Rural Office of Shishan Town.

This coincides with Zhu Chun's idea: "We may not bring a lot of economic growth, but we hope to carry out new explorations, inspire new thinking, and create new models."

After a year of exploration, the professional managers selected by Foshan City adapt to local conditions and develop diversifiedly, took the lead in promoting 79 collective projects, and promoted 28 dispatched state-owned enterprises to establish pairing relationships with rural areas.

Zhu Chun and Li Jihuang are full of confidence. Yan Feng is an ancient village with a history of more than 800 years. "Agriculture, culture and tourism are a good business card." Li Jihuang said that this year Yanfeng Agricultural Company will transform the cultural context of the ancient village into development momentum.

The Guangfo Road, which is full of traffic, witnesses the changes in the industry in the Pearl River Delta and also carries the new dream of rural collective economy development in the Pearl River Delta. With a new mission and new thinking, Zhu Chun wrote in his notebook: Reform is not about transplanting big trees, but about awakening endogenous forces.