The Guangzhou-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area offers myriad opportunities to all participating cities since it allows them to combine their strengths and thus help China become even stronger.

The Greater Bay Area has been called “China’s Silicon Valley”, and not without reason. Suffice it to say that the region has the potential to bring both economic growth and, new jobs and therefore prosperity to the region.  

Each of the cities in the GBA is expected to play an important role based on its respective strengths. For example, Hong Kong will play a key part as a financial center, while Shenzhen, where cutting-edge technology companies like Huawei and Tencent are domiciled, will leverage its technological prowess. Hong Kong, on the other hand, will also play a very important role in technology since it is also becoming an important AI hub.

Hong Kong is now embracing opportunities arising from the Greater Bay Area’s development, and, by playing a proactive part in China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), the SAR is unleashing its potential thanks to unreserved support from the central authorities for advancing key strategies to upgrade its superconnector role, including the digital yuan and environmental, social and governance.

In addition to the huge role that the Greater Bay Area will play in Hong Kong’s future, we can also mention other opportunities such as fintech development in Hong Kong, the HKSAR’s anticipated entry into the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and the Connect Schemes.

Hong Kong and the rest of the Greater Bay Area are indeed increasing their roles as fintech hubs. The Fintech 2025 blueprint aims at pivoting the HKSAR toward a friendlier regulatory regime for digital assets, proving that the city is positioning itself to become a virtual assets center/crypto hub. Hong Kong has also stepped-up efforts to develop itself into one of the world’s most important Web3 hubs.

One of the key reasons for the success of all these initiatives is the fact that Hong Kong is part of the Greater Bay Area, which undoubtedly enhances the city’s future potential and, at the same time, enhances the potential of the rest of the immediate region.

Furthermore, a key idea in the Greater Bay Area is that of innovation. As per the latest Global Innovation Index (GII) 2024, published in late September by the World Intellectual Property Organization, Hong Kong ranked 18th among the 133 economies featured.

Moreover, and notably, the GII has ranked the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou science and technology cluster second globally for five consecutive years, which is a huge achievement. The cluster has filed 2,303 international patent applications per million inhabitants and published 3,469 scientific articles per million inhabitants over the last five years, making it not only the second-largest science and technology cluster in 2024 but also the 30th science and technology cluster by intensity (relative to population density) in 2024. As mentioned in the GII, 3 percent of Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou’s international patent applications are filed in collaboration with other inventors, with Beijing, Shanghai-Suzhou and Melbourne emerging as the top collaborative locations. About 65 percent of Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou’s scientific articles are published in collaboration with other organizations, with the top three locations being Beijing, Shanghai-Suzhou and Wuhan.  

As reported in the GII, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou science and technology cluster has been second globally for five consecutive years, and Hong Kong’s involvement in the Greater Bay Area offers it the opportunity to keep growing as an innovation powerhouse while enhancing its status as one of the world’s most important financial centers.

To sum up, the Greater Bay Area project will allow Hong Kong not only to enhance its role as one of the world’s most important financial centers, but will also help the city excel in other areas such as innovation, where it has also recently ranked highly. In the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan, the central government has again recognized Hong Kong’s potential at national level and has reaffirmed its commitment to support the HKSAR in strengthening its status as an international financial, trade and logistics hub.

The author is a fintech adviser, researcher, and former business analyst for a Hong Kong listed company.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.