http://www.bjreview.com AUGUST 1, 2019 BEIJING REVIEW 35
Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo
Comments to [email protected]These cities, with their complemen-
tary advantages, will play a leading role
in promoting the development of nearby
regions, according to Liu Jianheng, a senior
economist with Standard Chartered Bank.
In particular, the cooperation of the
three driving engines, Shenzhen-Hong
Kong, Zhuhai-Macao and Guangzhou-
Foshan, will help accelerate the
coordinated development of the eastern
and western coasts of the Pearl River Delta,
Liu added.
“Regional cooperation and integra-
tion is the actual need of the construction
of the Greater Bay Area and the key to
its success,” Lin Jiang, a professor at
Lingnan College, Sun Yat-sen University
in Guangzhou, told Southern Metropolis
Daily. He added that although regional in-
tegration made headway in the Pearl River
Delta region in the past, it didn’t meet ex-
pectations due to the lack of an effective
evaluation system. Therefore, Guangdong
proposes a mechanism for coordinated re-
gional development, which will guarantee
implementation.
Hu Gang, a professor at the School of
Public Administration, Jinan University in
Guangzhou, said the key to boosting the
development of the Greater Bay Area lies
in breaking down barriers and coordinating
development among cities. Guangdong is
taking the lead in promoting the integrated
development of provincial cities and es-
tablishing relevant mechanisms, which will
play an exemplary role in the larger region.
Path finders
The outline development plan published
in February sets the goal of developing the
Greater Bay Area into a role model of high-
quality development. It urges accelerating
the development of Qianhai in Shenzhen,
Nansha in Guangzhou and Hengqin in
Zhuhai to fully leverage their experimental
and demonstration functions in deepening
reform, expanding opening up and foster-
ing cooperation.
Answering the call, Guangdong will
make great efforts to improve Qianhai as a
modern service cooperation area, including
easing restrictions on Hong Kong and
Macao investors from setting up banking,
securities and insurance institutions, and
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tween Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
Nansha will be built into a demonstra-
tion area as Guangdong steps up all-around
cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao to
expedite the development of international
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the Greater Bay Area.
A high-standard international leisure
and tourism island will be built in Hengqin
New Area.Scientific innovation
In its action plan, which includes 100 key
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vows to accelerate building a comprehen-
sive national science center for advancing
the construction of the Greater Bay
Area. It will support the development of
the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and
Technology Innovation Special Cooperation
Zone and the establishment of an open
scientific research system that will be
shared by the two places. The Guangzhou-
Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macao Sci-Tech
Innovation Corridor will be advanced.
Furthermore, institutional barriers to
innovation will be broken and measures
will be introduced to facilitate the orderly
opening up of major infrastructure and
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to Hong Kong and Macao.
The plan also proposes that by 2020,
the number of new research and develop-
ment (R&D) institutions in the Greater Bay
Area should reach 200, with R&D expendi-
ture accounting for 2.8 percent of the GDP.Since the deeper driving force to de-
velop the Greater Bay Area should come
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manufacturing industry clusters, namely,
electronic information, automobiles, intel-
ligent household appliances, robots and
green petrochemicals. It will also focus
on strategic emerging industries such
as high-end equipment manufacturing,
biomedicine, the digital economy, new ma-
terials and the marine economy, carrying
out a number of major projects in these
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tries with trillion-yuan output value.
According to Guo, many of these in-
dustries, which are also frontier industries
with good prospects, have already been
established or developed as key industries
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and industrial resources by the construc-
tion of the Greater Bay Area will create
opportunities for the rapid development of
these industries, which, in turn, will be ben-
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Guangdong will also work to build a
high-standard pilot free trade zone (FTZ)
and a free trade corridor for the Greater
Bay Area and will give greater autonomy to
the FTZ for reform and opening up by en-
dowing it with administrative privileges.
Guo said the FTZ will still have a lot of
room for future growth. Its expansion will
promote the integration of the Greater Bay
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by institutional differences. QXIN
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Passengers walk by a sign with ferry information at the Shenzhen Airport Ferry Terminal in south AChina’s Guangdong Province on April 26BUSINESS