China announces new measures to support Greater Bay Area

Friday 15th of May 2020

China has issued a financial support guideline to boost the development of the Greater Bay Area, which includes Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau.

The new measures were jointly issued by the People’s Bank of China, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, according to local media reports, which didn’t reveal figures..

Beijing has been pushing the idea of the Greater Bay Area development to improve trade, infrastructure and connectivity in a huge area of southern China and is seen as a major positive for Macau.

The new guideline put forward 26 specific measures for these five areas: promoting the Greater Bay Area’s cross-border trade and facilitating investment and financing, expanding the opening-up of the financial sector, promoting the connectivity of financial markets and financial infrastructure, boosting innovation of the Greater Bay Area’s financial services, and preventing cross-border financial risks.

The area comprises the two Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao, and the nine municipalities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing in Guangdong Province. The total area is around 56 000 km2. At the end of 2018, the total population was more than 71 million, with a gross domestic product of $23,342 per capita.