This leading city in the low-altitude economy sector is set to revoke this supporting measure.

The Several Measures of Hangzhou Municipality for Supporting the High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy will be Abolished, and a Notice has been Issued to Solicit Public Opinions

According to The Paper, recently, the official website of Hangzhou Municipal Finance Bureau released the Announcement on Public Solicitation of Opinions on the Notice on Abolishing the "Several Measures of Hangzhou Municipality for Supporting the High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy". The announcement states that in accordance with the Administrative Measures for Administrative Normative Documents of Zhejiang Province (Decree No. 372 of the Provincial People's Government), Hangzhou Municipal Finance Bureau has drafted the Notice on Abolishing the "Several Measures of Hangzhou Municipality for Supporting the High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy", and is now publicly soliciting opinions from the public. The public consultation period runs from September 8, 2026 to October 7, 2026. The main content of the notice is: "In accordance with the Administrative Measures for Administrative Normative Documents of Zhejiang Province, it is decided to abolish the Several Measures of Hangzhou Municipality for Supporting the High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy."

Hangzhou is building itself into a "national leading city in the low-altitude economy", with the goal of attracting and cultivating more than 600 industry chain-related enterprises, fostering more than 10 leading or key link enterprises, and achieving an industrial scale exceeding 60 billion yuan by 2027. From the current industrial development status, according to the Urban Low-Altitude Economy "Connectivity Index (2026)", Hangzhou, together with Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzhou and other cities, forms the first echelon of low-altitude economy development, and is the leader of low-altitude economy development in various regions.

Back in 2024, the "low-altitude economy" was written into the government work report for the first time, positioned as a "new growth engine to be actively built". Against this opportunity, a number of cities including Suzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Hangzhou, and Hefei have introduced corresponding financial support policies to attract enterprises to settle in. Taking Wuhan as an example, it issued the Several Measures to Support the High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy in May 2024, which clearly supports the settlement of major low-altitude economy projects, with a single reward of up to 10 million yuan for enterprises, valid for 3 years.

In July of the same year, Hangzhou Municipal Finance Bureau released the Several Measures of Hangzhou Municipality for Supporting the High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy (Draft for Comment), putting forward 21 support measures, the first of which is also "supporting the settlement of low-altitude economy enterprises", with a maximum reward of 10 million yuan for newly settled enterprises. Two months later, the Several Measures of Hangzhou Municipality for Supporting the High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy was officially released, which came into effect on October 8, 2024 and is valid until December 31, 2027.

Why is this document of Hangzhou being abolished in advance when it is still within the validity period? The official website of Hangzhou Municipal Finance Bureau simultaneously released the drafting instructions for the abolition notice, clarifying that the background is "to implement the Administrative Measures for Administrative Normative Documents of Zhejiang Province, further strengthen the management of administrative normative documents, after research and soliciting opinions from relevant departments, the Several Measures of Hangzhou Municipality for Supporting the High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy has circumstances that should be abolished."

Specifically, Article 29 of the Administrative Measures for Administrative Normative Documents of Zhejiang Province, which has been in effect since 2019, stipulates that the formulation organ shall organize a comprehensive cleanup of the administrative normative documents formulated by the organ itself every two years; administrative normative documents that do not conform to laws, regulations, rules or national policies, and do not meet the requirements of economic and social development, shall be revised or abolished in a timely manner.

In terms of time, the public consultation period ends on October 7, 2026, which is exactly two years counting from the official implementation time of the document. During this period, China's low-altitude economy has entered a period of accelerated industrialization. The above "Connectivity Index" report shows that as of 2025, the number of low-altitude economy enterprises in China has reached 76,100, with an average annual compound growth rate of 13.2% over the past five years. Among them, the growth rate in 2025 was 21.9%, the highest in the past five years.

This year is regarded as the first year of the commercialization explosion of the low-altitude economy. As industry experts said, the low-altitude economy is gradually moving away from the early industrial cultivation stage, which mainly relies on policy promotion, capital investment, conceptual expectations and demonstration projects, and entering a development stage that pays more attention to the safety bottom line, governance in accordance with the law, airworthiness access, operation system and commercial sustainability.

Focusing on Hangzhou, as of 2025, there are 429 enterprises in the city's low-altitude economy chain, gathering leading enterprises such as Volocopter Aerospace, Antwork, and FlyWing, with the annual low-altitude industry scale reaching 43.557 billion yuan. In accordance with Hangzhou's deployment at the beginning of this year, it will focus on supporting low-altitude equipment R&D and manufacturing, core technology breakthroughs, enterprise airworthiness certification, low-altitude route operation, explore new application scenarios, support the creation of a "first flight zone" for the low-altitude economy, and open more than 30 new drone routes.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Urban Evolution Theory", written by Yang Huan, and published with authorization from 36Kr.