Greater Bay Area touted as
China’s new growth engine
Th e government hopes to duplicate Shenzhen’s success across the newly named region
BY C H E S T E R TAY
Since the reform
and opening up of China in the 1980s
led by its late paramount leader Deng
Xiaoping, the country’s Guangdong
province has been deepening its busi-
ness cooperation with nearby Hong
Kong and Macau by complementing
each other.
As the country’s economy grew by
leaps and bounds, places like Shen-
zhen, a major city in the Guangdong
province now, was one of the fi rst to
be established as a special economic
zone by the government.
Over the years, Shenzhen has
transformed from just a fi shing village
— where its Shekou area, located just
across the Shenzhen Bay from Hong
Kong’s Yuen Long, was the starting
point of the infamous 4km swim that
turned deadly for many who tried to
escape to the then city-state — into
what is known today as China’s Silicon
Valley, with its tremendous growth
pace dubbed the “Shenzhen Speed”.
The city’s economy was worth
270.12 million yuan in 1980, the year it
was established as a special econom-
ic zone. Last year, it hit 2.42 trillion
yuan. In contrast, Hong Kong’s gross
domestic product (GDP) came in at
HK$2.85 trillion that year.
But slowing growth rate is creeping
up behind Shenzhen’s astronomical
GDP. And the city is not the only one
facing this — this trend is spreading
across China.
To make further breakthrough,
the Chinese government released a
development plan in February this
year to outline Guangdong province’s
future direction, where it lumped
Hong Kong and Macau in with the
province and named it the “Greater
Bay Area” (GBA).
Specifi cally, the GBA will comprise
Hong Kong, Macau and nine munic-
ipalities in Guangdong — namely
Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Fos-
han, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhong-
shan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing. Cov-
ering a total area of 56,000 sq km, the
GBA had a combined population of
about 70 million as at end-2017.
Under the GBA’s development
plan, the China government hopes
future economic growth in the re-
gion could leverage on the unique
advantages each city has. For exam-
ple, Shenzhen has clear technological
prowess, while Hong Kong’s strength
lies in its fi nancial markets, as well as
comprehensive logistics and legal sys-
tems, while Macau plays a strategic
role to help strengthen China’s rela-
tionship with Lusophone countries.
The other eight cities, meanwhile,
off er advance industrial manufac-
turing capabilities.
Th e GBA’s combined GDP was 10
trillion yuan in 2017, of which 45%
was contributed by Hong Kong and
Shenzhen.
Shenzhen, incidentally, is also the
location of the new headquarters of
China’s tech giant, Tencent Holding
Ltd. Th e Tencent Binhai Mansion, as
it is called, was built at an estimated
investment of US$600 million in the
Shenzhen High-Tech Industrial Park.
One of the world’s largest social
media companies today, Tencent’s
social media application, WeChat,
together with its e-wallet WeChat
Pay, has almost 1.1 billion users. Th e
company is now focusing more on
cross-border payment fi nancial ser-
vices to facilitate interactions and
transactions within and beyond the
GBA.
In an interview with Th e Edge Fi-
nancial Daily, Tencent’s internation-
al business group general manager
Norman Tam said WeChat Pay sup-
ports cross-border payments that
allow users to make retail payments
beyond China.
“Th e transactions will be converted
into renminbi based on the real-time
rate. Today, WeChat Pay services are
available in more than 40 markets. For
cross-border payments, WeChat Pay
now supports 16 currencies.
“Recently, WeChat Pay HK has
also introduced support for cross-bor-
der payments, which allow Hong
Kong travellers to pay for products
and services using their WeChat Pay
HK wallets at selected merchants in
mainland China. WeChat Pay HK
will then automatically convert the
transaction amount into Hong Kong
dollars,” he said.
Tam said the cross-border mobile
payment service for WeChat Pay HK
users now covers nearly one million
merchant outlets in mainland China.
“Th is is a breakthrough that will
encourage interactions between us-
ers and businesses in mainland Chi-
na and Hong Kong. Th erefore, while
mainland China and Hong Kong have
two diff erent currencies, WeChat Pay
has a synergised mobile payment sys-
tem that can overcome the cross-bor-
der payment challenges,” he said.
On a recent media trip organised
by Tencent, reporters were taken to
visit certain places in the GBA to get
a feel of the region. Th ey were also
shown the 2.3 billion yuan China Spal-
lation Neutron Source (CSNS), the fi rst
neutron source facility in developing
countries, and the fourth in the world.
Th e CSNS is a powerful research
platform for fundamental research
and high-tech development in fi elds
like materials science and technolo-
gy, physics, life sciences, chemistry,
resources and the environment, ac-
cording to the Chinese government.
Th e facility’s manager, Professor
Chen Hesheng, said CSNS is one of
China’s largest science and technol-
ogy infrastructure and is expected to
be one of the main facilities in GBA
to drive scientifi c fi ndings.
“Our facility basically enables re-
searchers to dissect matter to a deep-
er level, at the neutron level, allow-
ing them to gain more insights into
the material they are dealing with,”
he said.
“We have an independent commit-
tee to evaluate which projects we can
dive into. It is usually free of charge,
unless the project owner wants the
data obtained through this facility to
be confi dential,” he added.
Th e Chinese government hopes to
duplicate Shenzhen’s success within
the GBA by establishing Hengqin, an
island in Zhuhai, as a special econom-
ic zone as well.
Only time will tell whether Heng-
qin could emerge as another Shen-
zhen, for both cities, despite being in
the same country, has and will con-
tinue to be developed in an entirely
diff erent economic backdrop.
The same goes for GBA, as the
country is no longer led by reform-
ists like Deng, and economic reform
measures implemented in the past
have been seen rolled back since the
Hu-Wen administration, a situation
that has not really changed under the
China’s new growth engine
Th e government hopes to duplicate Shenzhen’s success across the newly named region
BY C H E S T E R TAY
Since the reform
and opening up of China in the 1980s
led by its late paramount leader Deng
Xiaoping, the country’s Guangdong
province has been deepening its busi-
ness cooperation with nearby Hong
Kong and Macau by complementing
each other.
As the country’s economy grew by
leaps and bounds, places like Shen-
zhen, a major city in the Guangdong
province now, was one of the fi rst to
be established as a special economic
zone by the government.
Over the years, Shenzhen has
transformed from just a fi shing village
— where its Shekou area, located just
across the Shenzhen Bay from Hong
Kong’s Yuen Long, was the starting
point of the infamous 4km swim that
turned deadly for many who tried to
escape to the then city-state — into
what is known today as China’s Silicon
Valley, with its tremendous growth
pace dubbed the “Shenzhen Speed”.
The city’s economy was worth
270.12 million yuan in 1980, the year it
was established as a special econom-
ic zone. Last year, it hit 2.42 trillion
yuan. In contrast, Hong Kong’s gross
domestic product (GDP) came in at
HK$2.85 trillion that year.
But slowing growth rate is creeping
up behind Shenzhen’s astronomical
GDP. And the city is not the only one
facing this — this trend is spreading
across China.
To make further breakthrough,
the Chinese government released a
development plan in February this
year to outline Guangdong province’s
future direction, where it lumped
Hong Kong and Macau in with the
province and named it the “Greater
Bay Area” (GBA).
Specifi cally, the GBA will comprise
Hong Kong, Macau and nine munic-
ipalities in Guangdong — namely
Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Fos-
han, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhong-
shan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing. Cov-
ering a total area of 56,000 sq km, the
GBA had a combined population of
about 70 million as at end-2017.
Under the GBA’s development
plan, the China government hopes
future economic growth in the re-
gion could leverage on the unique
advantages each city has. For exam-
ple, Shenzhen has clear technological
prowess, while Hong Kong’s strength
lies in its fi nancial markets, as well as
comprehensive logistics and legal sys-
tems, while Macau plays a strategic
role to help strengthen China’s rela-
tionship with Lusophone countries.
The other eight cities, meanwhile,
off er advance industrial manufac-
turing capabilities.
Th e GBA’s combined GDP was 10
trillion yuan in 2017, of which 45%
was contributed by Hong Kong and
Shenzhen.
Shenzhen, incidentally, is also the
location of the new headquarters of
China’s tech giant, Tencent Holding
Ltd. Th e Tencent Binhai Mansion, as
it is called, was built at an estimated
investment of US$600 million in the
Shenzhen High-Tech Industrial Park.
One of the world’s largest social
media companies today, Tencent’s
social media application, WeChat,
together with its e-wallet WeChat
Pay, has almost 1.1 billion users. Th e
company is now focusing more on
cross-border payment fi nancial ser-
vices to facilitate interactions and
transactions within and beyond the
GBA.
In an interview with Th e Edge Fi-
nancial Daily, Tencent’s internation-
al business group general manager
Norman Tam said WeChat Pay sup-
ports cross-border payments that
allow users to make retail payments
beyond China.
“Th e transactions will be converted
into renminbi based on the real-time
rate. Today, WeChat Pay services are
available in more than 40 markets. For
cross-border payments, WeChat Pay
now supports 16 currencies.
“Recently, WeChat Pay HK has
also introduced support for cross-bor-
der payments, which allow Hong
Kong travellers to pay for products
and services using their WeChat Pay
HK wallets at selected merchants in
mainland China. WeChat Pay HK
will then automatically convert the
transaction amount into Hong Kong
dollars,” he said.
Tam said the cross-border mobile
payment service for WeChat Pay HK
users now covers nearly one million
merchant outlets in mainland China.
“Th is is a breakthrough that will
encourage interactions between us-
ers and businesses in mainland Chi-
na and Hong Kong. Th erefore, while
mainland China and Hong Kong have
two diff erent currencies, WeChat Pay
has a synergised mobile payment sys-
tem that can overcome the cross-bor-
der payment challenges,” he said.
On a recent media trip organised
by Tencent, reporters were taken to
visit certain places in the GBA to get
a feel of the region. Th ey were also
shown the 2.3 billion yuan China Spal-
lation Neutron Source (CSNS), the fi rst
neutron source facility in developing
countries, and the fourth in the world.
Th e CSNS is a powerful research
platform for fundamental research
and high-tech development in fi elds
like materials science and technolo-
gy, physics, life sciences, chemistry,
resources and the environment, ac-
cording to the Chinese government.
Th e facility’s manager, Professor
Chen Hesheng, said CSNS is one of
China’s largest science and technol-
ogy infrastructure and is expected to
be one of the main facilities in GBA
to drive scientifi c fi ndings.
“Our facility basically enables re-
searchers to dissect matter to a deep-
er level, at the neutron level, allow-
ing them to gain more insights into
the material they are dealing with,”
he said.
“We have an independent commit-
tee to evaluate which projects we can
dive into. It is usually free of charge,
unless the project owner wants the
data obtained through this facility to
be confi dential,” he added.
Th e Chinese government hopes to
duplicate Shenzhen’s success within
the GBA by establishing Hengqin, an
island in Zhuhai, as a special econom-
ic zone as well.
Only time will tell whether Heng-
qin could emerge as another Shen-
zhen, for both cities, despite being in
the same country, has and will con-
tinue to be developed in an entirely
diff erent economic backdrop.
The same goes for GBA, as the
country is no longer led by reform-
ists like Deng, and economic reform
measures implemented in the past
have been seen rolled back since the
Hu-Wen administration, a situation
that has not really changed under the
