Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

HONG KONG’S C-MER Eye Care Holdings Ltd. announced Thursday that it has successfully won the bid for a land plot in Pingshan District with 209 million yuan (US$30 million). The parcel will be developed into a high-end eye hospital and C-MER’s headquarters in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

According to C-MER, the land plot on Pingshan Road occupies a land area of 4,958 square meters, with a planned construction area of more than 23,000 square meters. The plot is located in Pingshan’s new core development zone and is adjacent to Pingshan Railway Station and the planned Shahu Station of Metro Line 14.

Dennis Lam, founder of the leading ophthalmic service provider, said the eye hospital in Pingshan will be a talent training base and help cultivate more high-quality ophthalmic talents with basic research and innovation abilities to serve the Greater Bay Area.

As to why C-MER has chosen Shenzhen as the headquarters of the eye care conglomerate, Lam said that Shenzhen is adjacent to Hong Kong and has geographical advantages.

Lam said opportunities abound in Shenzhen as it plays a pivotal role in the Greater Bay Area and is tasked with building a pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Lam believes that medical talents will come to Shenzhen in a steady stream as the city becomes more internationalized.

C-MER plans to set up five eye hospitals in Shenzhen in the next three to five years. At present, it has established an eye hospital in Futian District. Its second operation, which is an outpatient clinic in Bao’an District, will be expanded into a hospital.

The eye hospital in Pingshan will be its third operation in Shenzhen, and its fourth and fifth hospitals are already in the pipeline.

The C-MER (Shenzhen) Dennis Lam Eye Hospital opened in Futian in March 2013, becoming the first private hospital wholly owned by a Hong Kong investor on the Chinese mainland.