Greater Bay Area to be showcase for opening-up

As one of the strategic city clusters - along with the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development and the Yangtze River Economic Belt - that are intended to act as engines for the national economy and facilitate the nation's further opening-up, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is a key component of the national development strategy for the next 30 years or so.

According to the outline of the development blueprint for the Greater Bay Area released on Monday, the main focus is to strengthen the cooperation among the three areas in order to turn the Greater Bay Area into a world-class innovation and technology hub and an efficient gateway between the mainland and the outside world, particularly those economies involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Encompassing nine cities in Guangdong province - Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Huizhou, Zhongshan, Foshan, Zhaoqing and Jiangmen - along with the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, which have different political, legal, economic and customs systems, the plan calls for close cooperation and coordination to harness the collective strengths of the region, which is already the most prosperous and internationalized region in the country.