This Day, That Year: July 1

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

On July 1, 1997, China resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong, concluding 156 years of British colonial rule.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was established under the principles of "one country, two systems" and "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong".

The successful implementation of one country, two systems has provided Hong Kong with an enormous competitive advantage in moving the economic and social agenda forward.

Despite having faced the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and 1998, the SARS attack in 2003 and the global financial crisis of 2008, Hong Kong's economy grew at an average rate of 3.3 percent per year from 1997 to 2017.

The city's GDP grew 3 percent last year.

During the past decades, Hong Kong has remained a center of international finance, shipping and trade.

Earlier this year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, China's Cabinet, unveiled a development outline for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, aiming to build the region into "a role model of high-quality development".

The Greater Bay Area covers nine cities in Guangdong province - Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing - as well as Hong Kong and Macao.

Under the plan, by 2022 the combined strength of the Greater Bay Area will increase substantially, cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao should be deepened and broadened and the internal driving forces for development should be further enhanced in the region.

By 2035, the Greater Bay Area should become an economic system and mode of development mainly supported by innovation, with its economic and technological strengths vastly increased and its international competitiveness and influence further strengthened.according to the plan.