The Tianhe CBD has developed rapidly over the last 10 years. By reformatting its space and regional economic patterns it has become Guangzhou's most representative world-class business card. In 2020, the Tianhe CBD was approved as a national digital service export base, the only central business district in Guangdong province so selected and approved. 

As Guangzhou's most powerful economic engine, the Tianhe CBD witnessed its GDP jump from 150 billion yuan in 2011 to more than 300 billion yuan($45.92billion) in 2020; its GDP now accounts for 12.5 percent of Guangzhou's total and surpasses that of more than two-thirds of prefecture-level cities of Guangdong province. The Tianhe CBD has become the leading new growth pole in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

In 2019, it became China's top business center district with a gross domestic product of 332.8 billion yuan, higher than those of Shenzhen's Futian CBD and the Beijing CBD. 

This year marks the opening of China's 14th Five-Year Plan(2021-25). Tianhe district's 14th Five-Year Plan proposes building the Tianhe CBD into a free service trade demonstration zone of the Greater Bay Area and a national digital service export base.

By 2025, the base's digital service exports will exceed 8 billion yuan and the CBD will have become the digital service export hub of the Greater Bay Area and the main gathering area of national digital service exports.

At present, the Tianhe CBD includes Zhujiang New Town, Tianhebei, and Guangzhou international financial town and covers an area of 20 square kilometers.

It gathers headquarters of 120 enterprises, four major accounting firms, five real estate companies, ten law firms and major human resource agencies, as well as 200 investment projects of world top 500 companies, 54 foreign consular authorities, regional headquarters of 33 foreign banks and more than 2,000 Hong Kong and Macao service enterprises.