The rich culture in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, coupled with frontier technology, could be the region's future development engine.

"Compared with other world-class bay areas, China's Bay Area is different as it represents the cultural diversity of our nation," said Wang Lei, co-founder and president of Beijing Sky Limit Entertainment Group, during a panel discussion held as part of the Global Tourism Economy Forum in Macao on Wednesday.

He said the historical culture of Guangdong province, Hong Kong's fast-tempo culture, as well as Macao's Portuguese architecture and rich entertaining industry, are integrating in a bid to provide innovation and creativity for the whole region.

Co-founded by Wang, Chinese mainland director and filmmaker Zhang Yimou and Qi Xiao, Beijing Sky Limit Entertainment Group was launched three years ago as a cultural technology enterprise.

In the past three years, the company has brought immersive experience to the stage of many mainland cities. In Beijing, it has carved out its niche in the virtual reality space and opened the first VR theme park in 2016, catering to both the domestic and global markets.

"The best application fields of immersive experience are definitely in culture and entertainment," Wang told China Daily after the forum.

He cited how immersive experience could shape the future of the world. Therefore, the company teamed up with the Beihai government in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region to build a cultural tourism attraction featuring immersive experience last month.

Immersive experience, specializing in augmented, virtual and mixed reality that blur the line between the physical and digital worlds, will be among the top 10 strategic technology trends for 2019, according to a report by US IT advisory company Gartner.

As a Pre-A Series technology entertainment startup, Wang said that, along with French film group MK2, they created So Real - a venture designed to cross-license VR content and hardware.

Riding on the Bay Area development, the area's long and rich history could be more prevailing after the "polish process" by the updated technology, Wang said. Before, soil and breeding places of technological culture firms had never existed in Guangdong, Hong Kong or Macao.

For the Bay Area, one significant aim is to have the world-class technology combining different resources from the three sides, while the future development of the region's technology is mostly underpinned by innovative startups, unicorns and other small- and medium-sized enterprises.

"Any technology is just a tool," Wang suggested. "What our technological startups need to do is try to combine our technology with the vertical application."

In the cultural sphere, the link to the technology is reflected in applying technology to tourism and entertainment, Wang explained. And he thought the Bay Area is the best market in terms of such a combination.

joycesun@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 10/26/2018 page8)