THE Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster in the Guangdong-Hong Kong -Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) retained its position as the second-ranked global hub for scientific and technological innovation for the fourth consecutive year last year, while the GBA’s GDP exceeded 14 trillion yuan (US$1.93 trillion) in the same year, according to provincial authorities Monday.

Tokyo-Yokohama was the world’s top scientific and technological innovation cluster in 2023, followed by Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou, Seoul, Beijing, and Shanghai-Suzhou, according to the 2023 Global Innovation Index (GII) rankings released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). China now has the largest number of clusters in the world, overtaking the U.S.

These clusters are the areas where the highest density of inventors and scientific authors are located, as defined by the WIPO.

According to Zhu Wei, executive deputy director of the Office of the Leading Group for the Development of the GBA, the GBA is home to over 75,000 national high-tech enterprises including industry leaders such as Huawei, Tencent, BYD, Midea, and Gree.

The Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone exemplifies the continuous enhancement of the GBA’s capabilities in scientific and technological innovation. The zone’s Shenzhen Park has attracted over 150 high-end scientific research projects.

With less than 0.6% of the country’s land area, the GBA accounts for one-ninth of China’s GDP.

Inter-city connectivity within the GBA has significantly improved, with major cities now mostly within an hour’s reach of each other. The area’s airport cluster handles over 280 million passengers annually, and the total shipping container throughput in the GBA exceeds 85 million TEUs annually. From the GBA, there are flights and maritime routes connecting to major cities and  trading ports around the globe.

Furthermore, the construction of significant cooperative zones has accelerated. The Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, functioning as an autonomous customs territory, commenced operations March 1 and aims to facilitate the movement of people, goods, capital, and information between Macao and Hengqin. Shenzhen’s Qianhai has enacted the nation’s first investor protection ordinance.                                (Mu Zi)