Tencent's Pony Ma launches guidebook for Bay Area future

One of the country's internet titans launched his Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area how-to book over the weekend, based partly on his own experience in the early years of a booming Shenzhen.

Tencent Chief Executive Pony Ma Huateng's book Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area: Digital revolution Opens Chinese Bay Era made its debut in Shenzhen on Sunday. The book analyses the experiences and trends of other bay areas in the world, proposes a development path for the Pearl River Bay Area and draws an outline of its future.

As the principal author, Ma looks back to his experience in Shenzhen over the three decades since his family moved to the city in 1984. He said in the preface that his confidence in the Bay Area comes from his affection for the area and opportunity to build it into an entirely digitized zone in terms of economy, government administration and culture.

The entrepreneur and his creation, Tencent, have been active promoters of a digital Bay Area and even a digital China. During the 13th National People's Congress in March, he brought eight suggestions to the top legislature, mostly concerning digital solutions in different industries.

Last year, Tencent tried linking residents' identity cards to its messaging app WeChat in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, teaming up with the local government in order to build a digital information center. They plan to expand the program across the border to Hong Kong and Macao so Bay Area residents can pass check points more easily.

More concrete plans could be found in the book, which is co-written by dozens of scholars, economists and entrepreneurs.