Video | GBA in one minute: Shenzhen a national innovation and technology center

Starting from today (April 15th), GDToday will go deep into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), to show you the great charm and great potential of this area.

Today, let's get a quick look at Shenzhen, a core city in the GBA and a national innovation and technology center.

Build a highland for sci-tech and industry innovation

In building itself into a pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Shenzhen is leveraging its leading role as a special economic zone, a national economic core city and a national innovation city, expediting its transformation into a modern and international city, and striving to become a capital of innovation and creativity with global influence.

Up to now, Peng Cheng Laboratory's headquarter has attracted 31 academics, over 160 fellows of international professional societies and national outstanding scholars, as well as over 1,800 researchers and engineers of various types.

In 2020, Shenzhen's strategic emerging industries achieved an added value of 1.03 trillion yuan, accounting for more than 37% of the city's GDP.

Deepen pragmatic cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao

Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect celebrated its 4th anniversary last year, with both stock exchanges in Shenzhen and Hong Kong growing more than 35-fold and 26-fold in turnover respectively, over the past four years.

The turnover of Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect reached 23.11 trillion yuan ($3.54 trillion), among which, Shenzhen Connect has reached 18.93 trillion yuan with the average daily turnover up 3508.63 percent from 1.541 billion yuan from the first month of operation to 55.609 billion yuan based on last month's figures. The daily turnover of Hong Kong Stock Connect has increased 2668.06 percent reaching 12.567 billion yuan

Shenzhen government has also offered up to 3 million yuan (US$430,600) to support the research project jointly developed by higher learning institutions and research institutes in Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao. The joint projects focuses on basic research and development and transformation of key technologies.

The city's science, technology and innovation commission is optimizing budget items, simplifying procedures and decentralize management to promote the integration of industry, research and education in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Construct a connected and integrated infrastructure system

The Shenzhen Bay Control Point (SBCP) provides round-the-clock cargo clearance service starting from last December. It further supports the logistics flow between the two places and progressively implements the "East in East out, West in West out" planning strategy for cross-boundary goods traffic, by extending the operating hours of cargo clearance to 24 hours at the SBCP.

The construction of Greater Bay Area on Track is speeding up, with the commencement of the Shenzhen-Maoming High-speed Railway Shenzhen-Jiangmen section, the Shenzhen-Shanwei High-speed Railway, and the Shenzhen International Airport-Dayawan Intercity Railway, the completion of the Guangzhou-Hong Kong High-speed Railway and the Guangzhou-Dongguan-Shenzhen Intercity Rail, as well as the Ganzhou-Shenzhen High-speed Railway to be open to traffic this year.

The Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport handled 37.92 million passenger trips last year, which accounted for 70 to 80 percent of pre-pandemic numbers. In 2020, the container throughput of Shenzhen Port reached 26.55 million TEUs, an increase of 3% against the trend.

Facilitate the lives of Hong Kong, Macao residents

Shenzhen has unveiled 18 measures to facilitate Hong Kong, Macao residents in education, employment, entrepreneurship, and living. In detail, six measures are involved in education, such as compulsory education, college scholarships, vocational education cooperation and cooperative education between Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao.

Three measures mainly cover employment such as a supporting internship policy for Hong Kong and Macao students, professional qualification certification and talent policy. Four preferential policies are given for start-ups in subsidies or funds, etc.

As for providing conveniences for living, the city has issued five policies relating to residence permits, housing for talents, transportation concessions, social security cooperation and building a comprehensive service platform.

About GBA

The GBA consists of the Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR, and nine cities in Guangdong (namely Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing) with a total area of 56,000 square kilometers.

Featuring regional advantages, strong economy, innovation power and advanced engagement with international businesses, the GBA will become a dynamic world-class city cluster, a global technology and innovation hub, a key component of Belt and Road initiative, a showcase for in-depth cooperation between the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao, as well as an ideal place for living, working and traveling.