GBA opportunities laid out to draw foreign businesses

Overseas investors are being called upon to make the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area an important destination for their investment and a significant base for global operations as it offers new and massive business opportunities.

"There are huge development spaces and broad prospects in the GBA, as technological innovation and industrial upgrading are accelerating, which is promoting the cultivation of new quality productivity," said Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

"The vast market contains greater possibilities," said Huang, who is also Party secretary of Guangdong province, during his speech at the opening ceremony of the 2023 Global Investment Promotion Conference for The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in Guangzhou on Wednesday.

The event, which concluded on Thursday, saw Chinese and foreign companies sign a total of 859 investment and trade contracts and agreements valued at more than 2.24 trillion yuan ($320 billion).

Huang expressed confidence in the GBA's development, noting that Guangdong is teaming up with the neighboring Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions to establish a market-oriented, rules-based and internationalized first-class business environment.

Wang Wentao, minister of commerce, promised continued support for the opening-up and development of the GBA, promoting it as a strategic pivot for a new development pattern and a demonstration area for high-level opening-up and high-quality development.

"China is now comprehensively promoting the Chinese path to modernization with high-quality development, providing broad opportunities for global investors to expand in the country," Wang said in his video address.

The event was hosted by the governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and included policy promotion, on-the-spot investigation, business talks and special lectures. It has become a platform for Sino-foreign cooperation and for overseas companies to seek investment opportunities.

Siemens Energy and Guangdong Energy Group Co announced a strategic partnership framework agreement at the two-day event, indicating cooperation in fields including gas turbine and offshore grid connection. Karim Amin, a member of the executive board of Siemens Energy, expressed Siemens' commitment to contributing to the region's green transformation and high-quality development.

Several global executives recognized the GBA's favorable business environment, robust consumer power and favorable demographic structure, and expressed enthusiasm about the prospect of linking the key cities in the region.

Jean-Christophe Pointeau, president of Pfizer China, said he came to the GBA because he was curious and motivated by the opportunities presented by the linking of the Pearl River Delta cities of Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Macao.