China's Greater Bay Area, Guangzhou's great opportunity

Guangzhou, capital city of China's economic power engine Guangdong province, held the 2019 Guangzhou Annual Investment Conference from April 2 to 3, with more than 1,000 attendees gathering to share business insights, as well as to talk about cooperation and investment.

In 2018, the southern Chinese city promoted itself on the international stage at high profile events, such as the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos of Switzerland, the China Development Forum, Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference, and the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions.

Cantonese Opera shows are staged at the China Development Forum 2019 on March 24. [Photo/Guangzhou Daily]

This March, the city has also been spotlighted at the China Development Forum 2019 in Beijing and the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan province. The two high-level international conferences not only enabled Guangzhou to learn more about trends in the global economy, but also project its own voice through the big platforms, allowing the world see the city's more open attitude and its resources, intensifying international exchanges.

Temasek, an investment company headquartered in Singapore, continues to express willingness to participate in the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area after joining in two promotion events of Guangzhou.

At the China Development Forum 2019 in Beijing, Dilhan Pillay, vice CEO of Temasek International, said the company will seize the opportunity of construction in the Greater Bay Area and strive to deepen cooperation with Guangzhou in the fields of intellectual property, health care, and other fields, as well as to introduce more knowledge-intensive firms to Guangzhou.

While at the Boao Forum for Asia, president and CEO of Temasek, Chia Song Hwee predicted that China will surpass Singapore as the largest investment destination for this Singapore state-owned investment company. among its places where they invest in China, Guangzhou is one of the central cities in the Greater Bay Area, and he believes that Temasek will have more cooperation with Guangzhou in the future.

John Flint, executive director of HSBC Holdings, has attended the roundtable sessions of the China Development Forum for two consecutive years. Last year, he made a special trip to the session with HSBC's annual report, which featured a panoramic view of Guangzhou on the cover. This year, he once again said that Guangzhou is an inseparable part of HSBC's future development.

"Openness is Guangzhou's biggest advantage and an important driving force for the continuous advancement of reforms," said Zeng Qinghong, chairman of Guangzhou Automobile Group. Taking the automobile industry as an example, he described the industry's development as bound with China's and Guangzhou's economic openness and inclusiveness.

Liu Guoping, president of ORIX Corporation in the Greater China Region and ORIX China Investment Corporation, also eyed big plans in the Greater Bay Area. He believes that ORIX will further expand its business in the Bay Area through its talent resources, as China deepens its reform and opening up efforts, as well as promotes the circulation of talent, logistics, and information in the Greater Bay Area.

To date, Guangzhou has maintained trade relations with more than 220 countries and regions, and established friendly relations with 73 cities. The number of foreign consulates in Guangzhou has reached 64, and the number of the city's international allies is still increasing. Through the implementation of a series of policy measures to deepen the reform of the business environment, Guangzhou has attracted 34,000 foreign-funded enterprises to settle in, and 301 Fortune 500 companies to invest.