Guangdong’s Greater Bay cities say they are equipped for Macau cooperation

Since the release of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area outline plan earlier this year, Guangdong has become better equipped to cooperate with Macau, representatives of businesses and the government told a delegation from Macau last week.

Led by the Liaison Office of Macau, a delegation of 13 Portuguese and English media employees from Macau paid a visit to four Greater Bay Area cities in Guangdong province: Guangzhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan and Zhuhai.

In Guangzhou, the delegation visited the Guangzhou Tower, TIT Creative Park WeChat Headquarters, the Hong Kong and Macau Youth Volunteer Center, and the GAC Group. In Dongguan, the delegation was introduced to China Spallation Neutron Source and China International Robotics Base. Afterwards, the group visited ShenZhong Link Administration Center, which showcased the bridge between Zhongshan and Shenzhen. Lastly, the delegation visited ASun Yichuang Space Business Incubation Base and the Mingyang Wisdom Energy Group Ltd.

The three-day visit uncovered efforts by the abovementioned cities to improve and pursue deeper development with the Macau SAR.

At the Guangzhou Tower, the Guangzhou municipal authority for Greater Bay Area affairs revealed to the media that the province has much to learn from the two special administrative regions.

In particular, Guangzhou wishes to learn from Macau and Hong Kong with respect to business environments, because the SARs “are fully connected to the global market. A distance between mainland China and the SARs still exists in that aspect, although mainland China has already reformed its business environment,” a representative of the municipal authority, surnamed Zhang, said.

“Having different legal systems and institutions in three places is a challenge, but also an opportunity for us,” said the official. “Now, we are learning from Hong Kong and Macau’s advanced experience in terms of business environment, trade and investment, and science and technology innovation.”

“Exchanges in scientific and technological innovation, financial cooperation, trade exhibition and culture have been continuously enhanced. We look forward to working with more entrepreneurs in Macau to integrate the whole industrial chain of the new generation of information technology, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, new energy, new materials and other industries.”

But the representative added that, in future, “Guangzhou will become the best investment choice for entrepreneurs.” Guangzhou is already working to improve its business environment. Currently, Guangdong is proactively promoting mutual recognition of professional certifications with both SARs.

According to the municipal authority, as of first half of 2019, Macau had invested in 445 projects in Guangzhou, totaling $1.645 billion (13.25 billion patacas) in contracted foreign investment and $681 million in actual foreign investment. Guangzhou in turn invested in a total of 31 Macau enterprises, with an agreed investment of $216 million.

Broadly speaking, economic and research activity is warming up on the mainland side of the Greater Bay Area. Here are some of the other developments the Macau delegation heard about on its trip:

ShenZhong Link to slash travel times

ShenZhong Link, a 51-kilometer eight-lane link between the Greater Bay Area cities of Shenzhen and Zhongshan, is expected to shorten the travel time between Macau and Shenzhen to one hour.

ShenZhong Link is a project that will integrate bridges, islands, a tunnel and underwater interchanges. The project, which starts at the airport interchange of Guangzhou-Shenzhen Coastal Expressway and will connect with Shenzhen’s Bao’an Airport, is expected to be completed in 2024. 

The bridge will form an A-shape in the Pearl River Delta, similar to the Y-shape formed by the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. Shenzhen, a Tier-1 city in China, was notably omitted from the HKZMB project.

Currently, transportation between Shenzhen and Zhongshan depends greatly on Hubei Bridge, which is located north of the planned ShenZhong Link. Once ShenZhong Link is opened to the public, the land-based travel time between Zhongshan and Shenzhen will be shortened from the current 2 hours down to 30 minutes. 

ShenZhong Link, which is also known as Shenzhen Zhongshan Bridge, has an estimated budget of RMB20 billion. Analysis from mainland China predicts the bridge will be more economically effective than the HKZMB.

Dongguan and Zhongshan startup incubators

Established in October 2016, the ASun Yichuang Space Business Incubation Base in Zhongshan has already incubated 25 Macau startups. Currently, the center is working with eight Macau startups. In addition to the eight Macau startups being incubated at the base, 90 other projects are also in gestation.

Occupying 8,000 square meters of floorspace, the incubation base offers startup teams an entrepreneurship academy, multi-functional demonstration hall and an operation area, among other facilities.

While the Zhongshan base has already incubated 25 Macau teams, Xbot Park, a startup incubator located in Dongguan, is still awaiting its first project from Macau. Xbot Park focuses in robotics and smart hardware. It cooperates with top universities across the mainland, Hong Kong and overseas, aiming to help talented startups in incubators connect with each other.

While there has been no collaboration between XBot Park and entities in Macau so far, 20% of the park’s current teams are from Hong Kong. 

Most Macau startups are found in the fields of e-commerce, media, IT, and cultural planning, officials told the Macau delegation.

World’s fourth Spallation Neutron Source

The first neutron source facility in a developing country and the fourth worldwide, the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) is expected to have positive effect on promoting science, high-tech development and national security, as well as on attracting more cooperation from all over the world, including Macau.

Located in Dongguan, CSNS currently employs more than 400 scientists and engineers. As of today, CSNS has not yet cooperated with entities from Macau, but looks forward to it, a representative of CSNS told the Macau delegation.

This is the fourth Spallation Neutron Source facility in the world, following others in the U.K., U.S. and Japan. This facility will be open to the whole world once it’s completed.

Legal assistance center 

for Macau, HK young adults

Established in May this year, the Hong Kong and Macau Youth Support Center serves Hong Kong and Macau people who are aged 45 years and younger.  This is the first support center of its kind for people from the two SARs in the whole of Guangdong Province.

The center provides legal consultancy, legal promotional campaigns and legal assistance among other mainland law-related matters to Hong Kong and Macau young people, seeking to starting businesses or other projects in Guangzhou.

The center has four service counters, two of which are for SAR youth exclusively.

Macau Daily Times visited the officials and businesses in the four Greater Bay Area cities of Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Dongguan and Zhongshan as part of an organized tour at the invitation of the Central People’s Government Liaison Office of the Macao Special Administrative Region.