Hengqin-Zhuhai to flourish as tourism, financial center

The China Reform Hengqin Forum 2017 was held on Dec 18, attracting 15 world-class experts and scholars to make suggestions for the area's future in terms of new reform, financial development, and industrial opportunities.

The Annual Report on Development of the Hengqin Pilot Free Trade Zone by high-end financial data and analysis platform Caixin Insight Group, proposed three directions for the area's future.

The first is to build to a world-class tourist and leisure center in tandem with Macao. Second is to help Zhuhai become a second-tier city in the country. Relying on the geological advantage of neighboring Hong Kong, it is thirdly advised to build a sub-center in the Greater Bay Area to provide financial services for countries along the Belt & Road.

Standing at a vantage position for opening-up, Hengqin will adhere to open, innovative, and dialectical thinking, while holding onto the bottom line of law. It will push win-win cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, strengthen innovation and market vitality, and improve government efficiency, said Yang Chuan, director of the Hengqin New Area Administrative Committee.    

The event encompassed a keynote speech session and sub-forums themed Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Development & Open Market, and Financial Innovation & International Cooperation. 

China Reform (Hengqin) Forum 2017 [Photo by Li Jianshu / Zhuhai Daily]

Discussions revolved around industrial transformation and institutional innovation, opening-up of the financial market, and construction of a multi-layered capital market in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.  

Experts and scholars contributed ideas on how to create a new pattern of opening-up, realize a synergetic regional development, and bolster China (GDFTZ) Hengqin as an innovation high ground in the country riding on historic opportunities coming with the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.

The development and achievements of Hengqin over the past eight years were highlighted by the experts and scholars, with suggestions that the area's future development should be quality-oriented and focus on its own characteristics. A field trip to Hengqin was made by the attendees at the invitation of the local administrative committee.

Attendees included Li Yizhong, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the CPPCC; well-known economists Yao Jingyuan and Xie Guozhong; and James Mirrlees, winner of the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.