"Guangdong's opening up started with opening to Hong Kong and Macau. The deepening of cooperation with these two places will remain a task of paramount importance in Guangdong’s future efforts to expand its scope of opening. With its close historical ties with Hong Kong and Macau, our province enjoys a unique winning edge in this regard," said Guangdong’s newly-elected governor Zhu Xiaodan in a recent meeting with the media.
Guangdong’s Nansha, Shenzhen’s Qianhai and Zhuhai’s Hengqin are new platforms for closer cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau in the modern service industries. On the question of Hong Kong-Shenzhen cooperation in modern services, Zhu Xiaodan disclosed that the National Development and Reform Commission had been organising the departments concerned to strengthen coordination on the formulation of supporting policies. He said the basic content had been finalised and the policies would be announced any time now.
Zhu Xiaodan stressed the need to advance with the times and move towards new and higher levels of cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau. In his opinion, it is necessary first of all to actively explore and promote cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau in the service sectors under CEPA and the national policy of making Guangdong the pilot for the liberalisation of the service sectors, including finance, modern logistics, information industry, scientific research, creative design, high-end business conventions, service outsourcing and intermediary services.
As Guangdong continues with its efforts to promote the transformation and upgrade of the processing trade and the development of the modern service industries, exchanges and cooperation between Guangdong and Hong Kong are bound to develop in deeper and higher levels. The Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone is an important project of Guangdong-Hong Kong cooperation. It’s worth waiting to see what this project has to offer.
