AN adviser to Guangdong’s political advisory body, which convened its annual session Wednesday in Guangzhou, suggested building duty-free product collection and distribution centers in the Qianhai and Hengqin areas to stimulate the development of the duty-free economy.

Attending the Fifth Session of the 12th Guangdong Provincial Committee of the CPPCC, Niu Baozhuang, a professor from the School of Business Management of South China University of Technology, suggested Guangdong, especially GBA (Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area) city clusters, should speed up the development of the duty-free economy and turn the area into world-class consumption hub.

“Guangdong’s economic and consumption strengths, and cross-border passenger traffic took the lead in the country. However, judging from the types of industries in different regions, the development of Guangdong’s duty-free economy is not in line with the province’s status boasting a large and open economy,” Niu said, suggesting that Guangdong should take advantage of its favorable conditions and brighten its “Shopping Paradise” brand.

Niu also suggested that Guangdong apply for policy supports from Central authorities, explore duty-free business operations in the Qianhai and Hengqin areas, and put in effort to turn the GBA into the first choice for shoppers from overseas.

Jin Yan, a deputy from Shenzhen to the Fifth Session of the 13th Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress, suggested that Shenzhen take the lead in promulgating detailed measures protecting privacy and preventing abuse of facial recognition technologies.

With the prevalent use of facial recognition technologies in office buildings, housing compounds and public areas like Metro stations, private information leaks have become a major concern.

“Facial recognition (technology) brings convenience but risks as well. Enterprises’ data banks could be breached if security level is low. Facial information captured in shopping centers and housing compounds could be misused,” said Jin.

Although China has promulgated rules to protect personal information and Shenzhen has started to enforce its data regulation banning the abuse of facial recognition technologies this January, Jin thought the regulations were not systematic, specific and well targeted.

“The decision makers should draw the boundaries for facial recognition technology applications and confer users the rights to use and choose,” Jin suggested.

Out of safety concerns, Jin proposed that authorities set restrictions on the fields that facial recognition could be applied to prevent massive technology use. Jin suggested Shenzhen work out detailed implementation measures and interpretations to its data regulation that took effect Jan. 1 this year. (Han Ximin)