FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Bay Area marked as global innovative hub, BRI gateway

Bay Area marked as global innovative hub, BRI gateway

THE blueprint of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is expected to paint the vision for the world’s largest bay area project. The GBA will emerge as a centrepiece for global science and technology, and an important gateway to link with the Belt and Road Initiative, sources familiar with the blueprint say.

The development potentials of the three free trade zones in the GBA, Qianhai in Shenzhen, Nansha in Guangzhou and Hengqin in Zhuhai, will be tapped, the sources revealed.
The 11-city cluster comprising nine cities in Guangdong province and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions will become a pioneer in implementing an innovation-driven development strategy, led by the central government. 
The blueprint aims at deepening collaboration, toward building the area into an internationally acknowledged economic powerhouse. Policies will establish the GBA as a magnet to draw resources for the drive toward greater innovation, becoming a cradle for emerging industries, the sources added.
The plan, to be announced soon, will support the integration of the GBA and collaboration among the participating cities. The development potentials of the three free trade zones in the GBA, Qianhai in Shenzhen, Nansha in Guangzhou and Hengqin in Zhuhai, will be tapped, the sources revealed.
On Thursday, the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao governments will hold a joint seminar to discuss and promote the blueprint.
Data show that in 2017, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’s population was 69.6 million, greater than the world’s three existing major bay areas, San Francisco, New York and Tokyo. The land area of 55,907 square kilometers, is also greater than those of its three major competitors.
The central government supports the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to seek high-quality development, fully utilising the advantages of Guangdong and the two SARs. 
When completed, the GBA will present a world-class city cluster, embracing the Belt and Road Initiative and being competitive on the global scale. Vice-Premier Han Zheng, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, outlined the vision in August last year. 
He was chairman at the first official meeting of the nation’s top decision-making unit on GBA development. Government leaders of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao are also members of the principal decision-making body - the leading group for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. 
 

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