Guangdong to advance opening-up

South China's Guangdong province will spare no effort to advance high-level opening-up and accelerate the development of a first-class Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area that is dynamic and internationally competitive, a senior provincial official said on Wednesday.

To achieve the goal, Guangdong, a global scientific and technological innovation hub, will further optimize its foreign investment environment and continuously expand space for cooperation in foreign capital and trade.

Meanwhile, the province has promoted the alignment of rules and mechanisms for Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and elevated the level of institutional opening-up in the Greater Bay Area.

Zhang Hu, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and executive vice-governor of Guangdong, made the remarks at a news conference held by the State Council Information Office in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, on Wednesday.

Zhang said the province aims to foster a business environment that connects with Hong Kong and Macao and aligns with international standards, steadily advancing institutional opening-up in areas such as rules, regulations, administration and standards.

Positive progress has been made in promoting mutual recognition of standards for Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.

"Guangdong has recently introduced work plans for building a first-class market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment while advancing the pilot program for comprehensive reform of market-based allocation of factors in the nine Guangdong cities of the Greater Bay Area, aiming to provide a stable, fair, transparent and predictable development environment for all types of business entities," Zhang said.

Guangdong will continue to improve an open, free and inclusive sci-tech innovation ecosystem and accelerate the development of a globally influential international sci-tech innovation hub, Zhang said.

He added that, by seizing opportunities to build the Greater Bay Area into an international innovation hub in recent years, Guangdong has implemented an innovation-driven development strategy and elevated its regional innovation capacity.

The province has rolled out a package of policies to support foreign investment, implementing equal national treatment for both domestic and foreign-funded enterprises.

Guangdong has introduced major foreign-invested projects, including ExxonMobil and Covestro, a German manufacturer of polymers and high-performance plastics. A total of 113,800 new foreign-funded enterprises were established over the past five years, he said.

Guangdong has also promoted two-way opening-up between the Greater Bay Area and international markets in recent years, with total foreign trade volume ranking first in China for 40 consecutive years, according to Zhang.

The province's foreign trade increased by 22.1 percent to 1.64 trillion yuan ($237.68 billion) in the first two months of this year, a record high for the same period.

Guangdong's "new three" products — lithium batteries, electric vehicles and photovoltaic products — as well as high-quality goods such as home appliances and furniture, are widely sold across the world.

"Guangdong not only sells to the world but also buys from the world, with trillions of yuan worth of global goods entering China via Guangdong each year, realizing two-way market opening," Zhang said.

Gong Zhenzhi, director of the Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission, said Guangdong, a major energy consumer, will work to build a diversified, high-efficiency, low-carbon and green power supply system, with efforts to develop the clean energy industry during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30).

In addition to safe and efficient nuclear power, Guangdong will develop offshore wind power, promote utility-scale photovoltaic power, and build regulated power sources such as pumped storage and new-type hydropower in an orderly manner to ensure power supply, he said.