Lin Min linmin67@hotmail.com REGIONAL integration has become a trend in economic development, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area strategy will boost the development of high-tech enterprises and their overseas expansion along the Belt and Road, a Shenzhen University professor told hundreds of entrepreneurs at a forum Saturday. Prof. Tao Yitao, vice Party chief of the university, cited a U.N. report released last year, which ranks Hong Kong-Shenzhen as the No. 2 region in the world in terms of innovation, even ahead of San Jose-San Francisco (Silicon Valley), which is No. 3. In the report, pairs of cities or clusters of cities are ranked, which means regional integration is increasingly becoming the norm. Tao was speaking at an economic forum focused on the Belt and Road Initiative and the Greater Bay Area plan, which was jointly organized by Shenzhen University, Shenzhen Jieyang Chamber of Commerce and Shenzhen Alumni Association of Jieyang No. 1 Middle School. Prof. Qiao Xinsheng from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law also spoke at the forum. After 40 years of reform and opening up, China is shifting from an export-oriented economy to an open economy, and Shenzhen and other parts of the Greater Bay Area have witnessed a transformation from reform-driven development to innovation-driven development, Tao said. The powerful private sector and high-tech industries in Shenzhen mean the city’s growth is sustainable, she added. “The abundant capital and technologies that have accumulated after 40 years of rapid economic development need to find new opportunities overseas. ... Under the Belt and Road Initiative, private companies and high-tech companies in Shenzhen and other parts of the Greater Bay Area are in a good position to go global.” But Tao urged Chinese firms to fully understand the local culture, customs and laws when investing overseas. She attributed the failure of the Myitsone Dam plan to Chinese firms’ lack of understanding of the local culture, decision-making process and roles of powerful NGOs in Myanmar. She also downplayed the fear that an increasing number of enterprises in Shenzhen may be relocated to Huizhou and Dongguan as regional integration intensifies under the Greater Bay Area strategy. Capital is bound to flow to where the profitability is the highest and talent and labor will go to where they can get the highest pay, Tao said. Prof. Qiao said the 40 years of reform and opening up has been a process of streamlining administration and delegating power, and this process will reach its pinnacle in the planned free trade ports. The pilot free trade zones represent a new wave of deregulation, and the streamlined regulation energizes enterprises, Qiao said. Xu Xiangming, vice chairwoman of the Longgang District Committee of the CPPCC and an expert in rail planning and construction, told the forum that the Greater Bay Area needs a full-fledged rail transport network. She revealed that a new high-speed rail link will be built to connect central Shenzhen with the Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone, and the travel time between the two places could be cut to 30-40 minutes when the 350-kilometer-per-hour rail line is completed. |