THE Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is poised to become the largest economy among global bay areas by 2020, according to a report recently released by real estate consulting firm CBRE.

Covering the majority of China’s Cantonese-speaking regions, the Greater Bay Area will include Hong Kong and Macao, and nine cities in Guangdong Province, including the first-tier cities Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong will be the three growth poles of the area, as they possess advantages in scientific innovation, trade and logistics, and finance and services, respectively, the report said.

It is estimated that Hong Kong will become more attractive to firms and capital from the Chinese mainland.

The combined regional GDP of the Greater Bay Area stood at 11.7 trillion yuan (US$1.83 trillion) last year, compared with 9.35 trillion yuan in 2016, according to the report.

By 2030, the area is expected to have the highest GDP among all bay areas worldwide, and to become an advanced manufacturing center, as well as an important global hub of innovation, finance, shipping and trade.

However, there is still a gap between the Greater Bay Area and other international bay areas in real estate development, said Li Ling, a managing director of investment and the capital market sector at CBRE China.

Last year, the space taken up by high-quality office buildings in the Greater Bay Area was 32 million square meters, 40 and 55 percent lower than the New York Bay Area and the Tokyo Bay Area, respectively.

High-end businesses will continue to gather in core cities, which will boost office building investment in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, CBRE’s report said. Pazhou and International Finance Town of Guangzhou and Qianhai of Shenzhen are attracting tenants and investors.

The Greater Bay Area is seeing further integration of the cities within its boundary.

As the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link are expected to be put into service this year, more “one-hour working-living cycles” for commuters, such as Guangzhou-Foshan and Shenzhen-Dongguan, will be formed in the Greater Bay Area.

The idea of creating the Greater Bay Area was raised in 2009 in a research report on the coordinated development of the city cluster in the Greater Pearl River Delta region, which was jointly released by the local governments of the three regions.

A framework agreement on the development of the Greater Bay Area was signed July 1 last year, the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland. Under the agreement, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao will improve collaboration mechanisms and facilitate win-win cooperation to build a world-class bay area and city cluster.(SD-Agencies)