GBA key to driving innovation, economic dynamics

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is an advanced platform for innovation made up of strategic clusters for the development of foreign trade. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Macao's return to the motherland, making it an opportune moment to highlight the region's remarkable and multifaceted developments.

Notably, the Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, Zhuhai, Guangdong province, officially began closed-loop operations on March 1. It empowers cross-border e-commerce, acting as a Sino-Lusophone platform. China's total import and export volume with Portuguese-speaking countries stood at approximately $220 billion in 2023.China is deepening its cooperation with Lusophone countries such as Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique and Angola. It reflects the growing importance and future potential of China's efforts to inject new energy into the modernization of the Global South.

In October 2023, I visited Zhuhai, and was awestruck by the quality of new mechanisms developed to boost supply-chain management with the rest of the world.

According to data from the General Administration of Customs of China, in the first half of this year, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports totaled 1.22 trillion yuan ($164.79 billion), an increase of 10.5 percent year-on-year. In China's foreign trade, cross-border e-commerce is now one of the three major trade methods, alongside general trade and processing trade. So, the new cooperation zone in Hengqin, which is issuing new measures to propel cross-border e-commerce, will play an important role in the future.

So far, Guangdong has set up 6 million square meters of overseas warehouses worldwide. The Guangdong commerce authorities said they will fully use the port resource advantages of the Bay Area, deepen the system and mechanism reform, innovate approaches and methods and accelerate the global deployment of overseas warehouses and other infrastructures. These efforts will significantly help the cross-border e-commerce industry and build an infrastructure network with a global reach.

The Hengqin cooperation zone endeavors to develop new advanced industries, focusing on scientific and technological research and development, as well as future-oriented sectors, while also supporting industries such as traditional Chinese medicine.

Significant efforts are being made to foster new advanced materials, new energy, artificial intelligence, internet of things, and biotech and life sciences industries. The cooperation zone is looking to speed up the development of the microelectronics industry chain for specialized chip design, testing and inspection, develop the AI-enabled collaborative innovation ecosystem and start the pilot projects for the application of the next generation of internet industry clusters.

Meanwhile, the cooperation zone is encouraging private capital to set up market-based multicurrency venture capital funds and private equity funds and attract foreign investment to provide more support for high-tech industries, innovations and startups, facilitating the development of modern financial businesses. It is an ecological model that is committed to promoting Macao economy's sustainable development, ensuring the coordination of environmental development and protection to achieve the target of sustainable protected islands. It's not only a highly sustainable place but also the first-batch national marine ecological civilization demonstration site and ecological protection and construction demo area. Hengqin Mangzhou Wetland Park is a huge natural mangrove area with reeds, a real bio-reserve of biodiversity. Next to it is also the Zhuhai Wanshan Marine Development Experimental Zone, one of the first comprehensive locations of its kind in China. The area today significantly contributes to the growth of the blue economy.

After Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone, and Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone, the Bay Area proved itself as a well-engineered and well-orchestrated area, a proof of the effectiveness of synergistic industrial development, for future technology empowerment and AI restructuring, upgrading digital platforms and building sustainable ecosystems.

The Bay Area innovates cross-border fiscal management and has set up a highly convenient market access system. The international competitive edge of Hengqin cross-border e-commerce is not just about trade; it is about setting up an international window for influence and cooperation to become a significant breakthrough point. The use of technology to drive other industries forward is a strategic move that will undoubtedly strengthen the region's position in the global supply chain management landscape.

The Bay Area continues to develop with new advanced cooperation zones set to revolutionize the region's economic outreach and global trade dynamics with the Global South. Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin is a new system. It is a high-standard and open system adapted to accelerations and new momentums and continues to deepen the reform structure of the foreign trade system and new trade formats.

It is a 5.0 new industry space, built upon the ethical frameworks of Industry 5.0, where responsible technology and science drive the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, involving environmental governance, circular economy, and other pillars of socio-environmental well-being. This new-system economy integrates advanced technologies, among others — to drive innovation while prioritizing socio-environmental prosperity.

The collective rise of the Global South is a distinctive feature of the great transformation across the world. As the Bay Area continues to integrate advanced technologies into its business models and leverage its unique geographical and cultural ties, its future looks promising, with significant implications for the Bay Area and beyond.

The author is executive vice-president of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China and a doctoral candidate in sustainability and knowledge economy at Skema Business School in France. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.