Greater Bay Area

On February 18, 2019, the outline for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area was released by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, which aims to turn the region into a world-class city cluster and a role model for high-quality development. The bay area consists of Hong Kong, Macao and nine cities in Guangdong Province, which combined generated roughly 10 trillion yuan (US$1.5t) or one-eighth of China’s GDP in 2017. As one of the most open and economically vibrant regions in China, it will comprehensively boost the country’s opening-up in the new era and push the practice of One Country, Two Systems to a new level. Challenges lie ahead to boost the integrated development of the area due to the different social and legal systems and three separate currencies. Experts argue that it is also of crucial importance to cut administrative barriers within the area and let the market play the decisive role in the allocation of resources.