Yang Mei

yangmei_szdaily@163.com

OFFICIALS, scholars and economists attending the PKU Shenzhen Forum 2021 on Saturday afternoon provided their wisdom and insights on the new development opportunities for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).

Shenzhen Mayor Chen Rugui and Wang Bo, vice president of Peking University (PKU), delivered opening speeches.

The forum, themed “The 14th Five-Year Plan and New Development Opportunities for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area,” was hosted by Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS) in Nanshan District and attended by 1,300 or so PHBS faculty members, students and alumni as well as scholars and researchers, with many joining through livestreaming.

Speaking at the forum, Xie Fuzhan, president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, stressed the need to build GBA into an international hub for scientific and technological innovation by giving full play to the high degree of marketization and integral industrial chains in the Pearl River Delta Region as well as Hong Kong’s advantage in basic research.

Xie also suggested that GBA should aim to turn itself into an advanced manufacturing base with greater global competitiveness, a higher-level modern international financial hub and a world-class city cluster based on a multi-center network.

Bi Jingquan, executive vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE) and former commissioner of the China Food and Drug Administration, highlighted the importance of IPR protection and the creation of a high-standard environment for innovation.

Long Yongtu, chairman of the Advisory Board of the Center for China and Globalization, a Chinese think tank, and China’s former minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation, pointed out that GBA plays a unique role in China’s regional development plan and its success will significantly push forward the country’s overall economic growth and opening up.

As the secretary general of the Boao Forum for Asia from 2003 to 2010 which is held annually in Boao, Hainan Province, Long envisioned integrating Hainan into GBA development for a win-win outcome.

Zhang Xiaoqiang, executive vice chairman of CCIEE, called for the efficient and free flow of talents and data between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao as well as the connection and formulation of international economic and trade rules.