Guangdong, HK and Macao to be world’s most competitive metropolitan circle
08/21/2009 Source: People’s Daily
On August 19, Guangdong Province published its decision to promote closer cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao, proposing joint efforts to form a metropolitan circle with the strongest core competitiveness in the world by 2012.
Guangdong Province will promote closer cooperation with Hong Kong and Macau’s service industries and grant their modern service industrial projects the same preferential policies as domestically-funded enterprises, including the same special funding, taxation, credit guarantee and interest subsidy support.
Guangdong will construct international shipping, logistics, conference and exhibition centers focused on developing complementary sectors to those in Hong Kong and Macao.
It will also explore and introduce feasible methods for Hong Kong and Macao’s higher learning institutions to establish education institutions in Guangdong Province.
It will promote a pilot Renminbi settlement service program with Hong Kong and Macao.
The decision also proposes intensifying special funding to help Hong Kong and Macao-funded enterprises enhance their capability to cope with the international financial crisis.
Efforts should be made to promote Guangdong’s independent innovation cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao, focusing on garment, lighting decoration, furniture, hardware, leather and other industries. Specialized industrial towns in Guangdong in particular, will introduce design services from Hong Kong and Macao.
Guangdong will also strengthen its cooperation and exchanges with Hong Kong and Macao in fields such as film and television production, cartoon animation and advertising design.
The decision also suggests accelerating the construction of cross-boundary traffic projects including the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the Guangzhou-Zhuhai intercity high-speed rail and the project to extend inter-city rail to Macao.
The decision proposes constructing a high-quality life circle around the greater Pearl River Delta and attracting funds from Hong Kong and Macao to Guangdong’s medical service market. Hong Kong and Macao residents will be given the same treatment as Chinese mainland residents when they see a doctor in Guangdong Province.
The strategic goal proposed in the decision states that by 2012, the industrial structure of Guangdong Province will be further optimized and enhanced, the modern service industry system matching the International Financial Center in Hong Kong will be improved and major infrastructures will be integrated.
Moreover, a green high-quality life circle around the greater Pearl River Delta will be steadily constructed. International shipping, finance, logistics, trade, conference and exhibition, tourism and innovation centers will be formed, featuring work sharing and cooperation, mutual support of relative advantages and complementary development.
That means that the life circle will become a metropolitan circle with the strongest core competitiveness in the world. By 2012, the most vigorous and competitive city cluster in the world will be formed, becoming an economic growth pole with a strong driving effect.
