Shenzhen enterprises all set to jump on the bandwagon

Shenzhen's institutions and companies are adopting proactive strategies to cash in on the opportunities offered by the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area plan, with deeper cooperation with their Hong Kong counterparts as one of their major moves.

The long-awaited Bay Area blueprint, unveiled on Monday, provides an important outline of current and future cooperation and development of the 11-city cluster around the Pearl River Delta region.

With building a global financial hub slated as a key task in the blueprint, Shenzhen's banking industry is poised for action with its finger on the pulse.

Fan Wenbo - vice-president of the Shenzhen Banking Association - said they will step up cooperation between the banking sectors in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and cultivate high-level international talents amid increased business demand.

The demand for infrastructure construction financing, government industry funds and asset management will surge considerably, he predicted.

Fan believes the traditional business model of some Shenzhen banks would not survive under the new environment, as innovation and cooperation become the most significant task of the new era.

He encouraged commercial lenders to tilt their strategies to the resources in the Bay Area and reconsolidate information sharing and project cooperation among their branches in the region.

In the capital market, the blueprint has positioned the Shenzhen Stock Exchange as the core of the city's development in the sector, stressing financial liberalization and innovation.

The Shenzhen bourse has pledged to fully implement the guidelines and further leverage the capital market to help the real economy grow in order to support the Bay Area's high-quality development.

The development plan also put forward the strategy to build an influential international innovation and technology hub. The Shenzhen exchange said the goal is in line with its own major target of formulating a world-leading innovation capital center.

To achieve that objective, the blueprint offers Hong Kong and Macao greater access to research and development resources on the Chinese mainland in future, including "major national R&D infrastructure facilities and large-scale national R&D equipment located in Guangdong".

It will also explore policy measures to facilitate cross-boundary and regional flow of innovation elements, such as talents, capital, information and technologies, which have so far been a challenge for cross-boundary scientific collaboration.

"Technological innovation is one of the highlights of the Bay Area plan. As a national technology team deeply rooted in Shenzhen - a vital land for reform and opening-up - we're very encouraged," said Fan Jianping, head of the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The Shenzhen research institute will further strengthen cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao universities in R&D, education, high-tech industrialization and other areas to create a key platform for cooperation among the three regions in the Bay Area.

According to the institute, it will set up several innovation platforms at the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park in the Lok Ma Chau Loop, including a Shenzhen-Hong Kong biomedical innovation research institute, a Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-end medical equipment innovation center and an internationalized comprehensive R&D platform.

"We've long been focusing on innovative development. We have an advanced system and high-end talents. That enables us to develop a strong R&D base. Hong Kong and Macao have a sound intellectual property protection system and a developed judicial system. The two special administrative regions, which have close links to the outside world, also have an ideal environment for exchanging new ideas and technologies," Fan said.