The major industrial provinces in central China are vying for the new trillion-yuan market.

According to "Meta News", recently, the General Office of the People's Government of Anhui Province issued the "Action Plan for Accelerating the Development of the Commercial Space Industry in Anhui Province (2026 - 2028)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"). It clearly focuses on directions such as rocket reusable technology, satellite mass - manufacturing, payload innovation, and constellation construction and operation, aiming to accelerate the creation of a commercial space industry system with distinct characteristics, a complete industrial chain, and ecological synergy. By 2028, it strives to cultivate over 200 enterprises above designated size, with the industrial scale exceeding 70 billion yuan.

The "Plan" proposes to implement seven major projects, including innovation capacity improvement, leading of landmark products, infrastructure support, cultivation of business entities, exploration of application scenarios, agglomeration of industrial layout, and improvement of the industrial ecosystem. Through full - chain layout, it promotes the integrated development of satellites, rockets, networks, and terminals, accelerates the layout to form a number of landmark products in commercial space, enhances the industrial level, and promotes industrial agglomeration.

The "Plan" also clarifies that application scenarios are regarded as the key to complete the industrial closed - loop. With the satellite data platform as the foundation, all - industry scenarios as the carrier, and professional mechanisms as the guarantee, it promotes the transformation of commercial space from "going into space" to "landing on the ground", creating an Anhui model with operable data and replicable scenarios.

Commercial space is the strategic high - ground for technological competition and industrial layout among major countries. China's commercial space industry started in 2015 and is now at the double inflection points of "technological breakthrough" and "scale explosion".

In November 2025, the National Space Administration issued the "Action Plan for Promoting the High - quality and Safe Development of Commercial Space by the National Space Administration (2025 - 2027)", incorporating commercial space into the overall layout of the national space development. In this year's Government Work Report of the State Council, aerospace has been adjusted from a "new - emerging industry" to a "new - emerging pillar industry", achieving a historic upgrade in its positioning.

Some reports estimate that in 2025, the core industrial scale of China's commercial space reached 1.01 trillion yuan, a year - on - year increase of nearly 7%. It is expected that during the 15th Five - Year Plan period, the compound growth rate of the core industrial scale of commercial space will reach about 11%. By 2030, the scale is expected to reach 1.67 trillion yuan.

In terms of regional layout, currently, China has formed three major commercial space industry clusters in the Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta, gaining a first - mover advantage in areas such as rocket R & D and manufacturing, and satellite manufacturing. As an industrial province that has risen in recent years, Anhui has also listed commercial space as an emerging industry for key layout during the 15th Five - Year Plan period.

It is worth noting that the "Plan" in Anhui clearly proposes a spatial layout strategy that suits local conditions. That is, with Hefei as the core and Bengbu, Chizhou, and Anqing as characteristic supports, a full industrial chain from rocket engines to satellite manufacturing, from constellation networking to data application will be formed.

Among them, relying on the advantages of the comprehensive national science center and the deep - space exploration laboratory, Hefei focuses on the development of satellite platforms, constellation networking operations, and data applications, aiming to build an industrial innovation origin.

Bengbu and Chizhou focus on the development of reusable rockets, engines, and shared testing services. Bengbu will build a rocket engine testing base for the Yangtze River Delta and central regions, and Chizhou will accelerate the layout of a space material testing and verification platform.

Anqing focuses on the development of satellite manufacturing, strengthens the construction of flexible and expandable production lines, and effectively supports the whole province and radiates the surrounding areas.

Each city accurately positions itself and develops collaboratively, which will jointly help Anhui form an industrial cluster effect in the national commercial space map.

According to the latest goal, Anhui plans to cultivate over 200 enterprises above designated size in the provincial commercial space industry by 2028, with the industrial scale exceeding 70 billion yuan. It aims to achieve an annual production capacity of 200 commercial rockets and engines, 100 commercial satellites, and have more than 60 satellites in orbit.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Urban Evolution Theory". Author: Liu Yanmei. Republished by 36Kr with permission.