Shenzhen to strengthen partnership with Hong Kong

Shenzhen will this year begin work on the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone, in a bid to promote expansion, Shenzhen's mayor Chen Rugui said.

He made the remarks while delivering a government work report during the annual local legislative meeting, which launched on Friday.

The zone is an example of cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong in the modern service industry.

Chen said the government will work to introduce policies that will deepen financial cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and will explore the possibility of establishing an integrated account system for yuan and foreign currencies.

It will also unveil a number of measures to support Hong Kong and Macao youths to begin careers on the Chinese mainland and set up an entrepreneurial zone for young people from Guangdong province and the two special administrative zones, he said.

Chen stressed that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will be a key focus of this year's government work.

The city will make all efforts to promote the construction of the Greater Bay Area to develop it into a vibrant and internationally competitive world-class city cluster, he said.

Shenzhen's economy expanded by around 7.5 percent year-on-year to 2.4 trillion yuan ($354.1 billion) in 2018, making it among the top five Asian cities in terms of economic scale.