2026 Zhuhai-Macau Cooperation Conference

ANALYSIS

Standards, whether technical, transactional, or service-related, are critical to a functioning business ecosystem. They create mutually recognized and understood rules and norms for product specifications, quality and safety. Standards raise expectations of performance outcomes and product quality, and in doing so protect the end customer.

They make trade and transactions easier by safeguarding a minimum level of quality, thereby increasing trust. Goods become more reliable, safe to use, and buyers can purchase with confidence. From the negotiation of a manufacturing or procurement contract to final payment, every step is underpinned by standards familiar to all parties. They support efficiencies in time, material resources and effort, while mitigating transactional conflict and performance non-compliance.

Most of us readily understand the idea of service standards. We expect cleanliness in restaurants and cafes, while high-visibility vests and designated walk-ways on factory floors signal concern for human safety.

Differences in transactions and interactions across Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou borders hardly draw attention until the contrast is explicitly highlighted.

A Macau MBA class recently presented two case studies. One described a Hong Kong pet training company which had expanded business into Macau. In Hong Kong trainers must hold internationally recognized professional training certificates and possess pet first-aid skills.

Training reports, often with video updates, are provided to owners. In Macau, contracts are more relationship-based. Animal welfare rules and training approaches are not specified, leading some Macau trainers to use older training tools no longer permitted in Hong Kong.

Another case compared management practices at an after-school child-care center in Shantou, run by an experienced Hong Kong owner. In Hong Kong, rules were transparent, predictable and had established procedures in place. In Shantou, practices were more flexible and relied on personal relationships.

Trust between the parents and the organization in Hong Kong was underpinned by contracts, staff qualifications and legal provisions, while in Shantou it rested on personal networks and reputation: rule-driven versus relationship-driven. Safety management followed procedures in Hong Kong but was flexibly executed in Shantou. Staff management was rules- and policy-driven in Hong Kong but relied on maintaining good relationships in Shantou. Meals met quality standards in Hong Kong but in Shantou, they were provided by friendly local suppliers.

The development of harmonized standards in the GBA was reported in The Times in May 2025 when the State Administration for Market Regulation announced that the number of Bay Area Standards had reached 235. Sectors included transportation, healthcare, food, and culture at the time. The aim was and continues to be to facilitate seamless integration across the GBA by unifying technical specifications. Since the 2023 launch of the first batch of 110 GBA Standards, expansion has continued to facilitate the “soft connectivity” of rules among the three regions, complementing physical, financial and other forms of integration. By March 2026, 270 mutually recognized standards had been issued across Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau, covering catering, healthcare, ESGs, intelligent manufacturing, infrastructure, ecological systems, transport and livelihood services. The current number stands at 278.

The key details of the GBA Standards include voluntary adoption by local trades and businesses, minimizing compliance burdens on small to medium-sized enterprises in the first instance, while providing clear and commonly understood guidelines and standards of production, quality, safety and transfer mechanisms.

This reduces the need to negotiate product details and transactional mechanisms. Standards remove friction between transactional partners unfamiliar with each other’s norms and specifications.

The Center for Food Safety in Hong Kong highlights an important point: although the development of standards facilitates connection and promotion among the three GBA regions – enabling cross-boundary technology adoption and quality assurance – the process of agreeing on individual standards itself fosters deeper cooperation and mutual understanding.

Recently, the 2026 Zhuhai-Macau Cooperation Conference, held in Zhuhai on July 29, endorsed the joint development of an RISC-V open-source ecosystem center for the next phase of the Hengqin Cooperation Zone. Zhuhai’s manufacturing and electronics strengths will be combined with Macau’s advanced university research laboratories and international access status. Governed by RISC-V International, the standard prevents any single corporate monopoly from controlling the technology, the design and manufacture of custom microprocessors.

The convergence of this and other rules and standards is a key element in driving scientific and technological innovation in this zone.

China’s 15th Five-Year Plan explicitly calls for a strong base and platform of harmonized rules, regulations and standards to serve as the glue for Zhuhai, Macau and Hengqin’s complementary technological, industrial and social development and, more broadly, across the GBA. Research confirms that institutional distance – such as divergent standards between jurisdictions – undermines investment and collaboration, and creates delays.

In March 2026, the Standardization Research Center for the GBA issued Guidelines on the Common Needs of GBA Standards. These guidelines set out the priority sectors for developing new GBA standards and invite applications from businesses from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao to apply for the development of new batches of GBA Standards. Those standards will continue to rise. By Leanda Care