CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Friday, June 4, 2021 | 5 PATH TO GLORY guangdong

Editor’s note: This year, the Communist Party of China is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding. China Daily is publishing a series of stories looking at the tremendous changes that have occurred in provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities under the leadership of the Party. They also include stories of the people and places that have left indelible marks in the Party’s path to glory.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge connects Guangdong province’s Zhuhai city to the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Bay Area growth remains province’s focus

Along with deepening ties with Hong Kong and Macao, Guangdong to prioritize innovation, development of new industries GUANGDONG By XU XIAODAN and AN BAIJIE ble for scientists from both Hong Kong and The improvement of the modern trans- Population: 126.01 million in Guangzhou Macao, and the nine mainland cities of the portation system in the bay area has also Area: 179,700 square kilometers GBA have set aside 2.39 billion yuan to sub- greatly facilitated people’s travel between he growth of the Guangdong- sidize the personal income taxes of overseas the province and the SARs, Ma said. Over Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay talent, the governor said. 1,200 kilometers of high-speed railway have Area, the most dynamic city clus- Building up the GBA is a major national been built in the GBA, and it now takes only ter of South China, will be further strategy that has been directly planned and 30 minutes to drive from Hong Kong to Zhu- promotedT with a focus on high-quality led by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the hai, Guangdong, and even less time to drive development in the following years, said a CPC Central Committee, Ma said. from Zhuhai to Macao. Guangdong senior official. The project is seen as a move to further To encourage young people to start busi- Ma Xingrui, governor of Guangdong prov- promote reform and opening-up in the New nesses in the bay area, Guangdong, Hong ince, said that during the 14th Five-Year Plan Era as well as a way to further support the Kong and Macao have jointly built 13 inno- (2021-25) period, the province will give pri- “one country, two systems” principle in the vation bases. More than 4,000 young people ority to scientific innovation and the devel- SARs, he said. from the SARs are currently part of over 600 GDP of Guangdong opment of new industries. Guangdong will make further efforts to entrepreneurship teams in the province, “As the Communist Party of China marks help Hong Kong and Macao integrate into according to the provincial government. Unit: trillion yuan As the Com- 10.77 11.08 the 100th anniversary of its founding this the country’s overall development and pro- Zhang Yunfei, founder of Zhuhai Yunzhou 8.99 9.73 munist Party year, the Guangdong government aims to mote the SARs’ long-term prosperity and Intelligence Technology, an unmanned ship 7.95 of China fully implement the CPC Central Commit- stability, he added. developer, said the GBA is an ideal place for tee’s directive to build the GBA into a world- On July 1, 2017, Xi witnessed the signing of entrepreneurs like him to start their busi- marks the class bay area,” he said. a framework agreement between the nesses. 100th anni- The rapidly-growing area consists of nine National Development and Reform Com- After completing his postgraduate studies 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 cities in Guangdong and the two special mission and the governments of Guang- at Hong Kong University of Science and versary of its administrative regions of Hong Kong and dong, Hong Kong and Macao on deepening Technology, Zhang went to Zhuhai and found ing Macao. According to data from the provincial their cooperation. It marks the launch of the founded his company in 2010. The compa- Total value of imports government, the GDP of the GBA reached 11.5 building of the Greater Bay Area. ny’s products have been sold in more than and exports this year, the Unit: trillion yuan trillion yuan ($1.78 trillion) last year. In February 2019, the GBA development 40 countries. 7.16 7.14 7.08 Guang dong That amount is higher than South Korea’s plan was officially released as part of China’s “The Greater Bay Area has entered a new 6.30 6.82 $1.62 trillion, Brazil’s $1.39 billion and Aus- overall reform and opening-up strategy, stage of innovation-driven development, govern ment tralia’s $1.33 trillion during the same period, aiming to build the country’s southern and the world-class scientific foundation aims to ... according to data from the Organization for region into a model of unique development and abundant talent here have made it a build the Economic Cooperation and Development. and a world-class bay area and city cluster. great place for young people to pursue their Since the start of the building of the Great- Over the past four years, many achieve- dreams,” Zhang said. GBA into a er Bay Area in 2017, Guangdong, Hong Kong ments have been made in the development of Ge Changwei, director of the Guangdong 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 and Macao have strengthened their inter- the GBA, and cooperation between Guang- Development and Reform Commission, said Source: Guangdong Provincial Bureau of world-class Statistics, Guangdong Yearbook 2020 connectivity in many aspects, including dong, Hong Kong and Macao has been further that the research and development expenses CHINA DAILY bay area.” infrastructure construction and people-to- promoted, said the provincial governor. in the nine mainland cities in the GBA people exchanges, Ma said. Twenty-one enterprises in the GBA were reached more than 300 billion yuan last Ma Xingrui, gov- ernor of Guang- Whether the GBA can be built into a listed on the Fortune Global 500 last year, year. dong province world-class bay area depends on its innova- compared with just four in 2017. Moreover, “Industrial innovation is our advantage, tion capacity, Ma said, adding that Guang- the number of national-level high technolo- and we will continue to consolidate this,” he dong cooperated with both SARs to build 20 gy companies in Guangdong reached 53,000 told China Daily. new joint laboratories. last year, about 20,000 more than in 2017, More than 10,000 large-scale scientific according to statistics from the provincial Contact the writers at instruments in Guangdong are now availa- government. [email protected]