"Guangzhou will give full play to its advantages in areas such as industrial finance, scientific and technological finance and cross-border finance and will have a promising future in cooperating with other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area", said Qiu Yitong, director of the bureau of financial affairs of Guangzhou.

The remarks were made by Qiu at the 2018 Guangzhou-Hong Kong Financial Cooperation Promotion Conference which was held in Hong Kong on Jan 15 and attracted over 200 experts, scholars and people from the financial sector.

At the conference, Qiu noted three advantages of Guangzhou's financial industry: increasingly growing competitiveness due to concentration of high-end financial resources and financial institutions, gradually improved financial services functions and highlighted green finance services parks. He also mentioned that Guangzhou has taken the lead in China in terms of offering preferential policies to lure talents in the financial sector and encourage financial institutions to settle down in the city.

The 2018 Guangzhou-Hong Kong Financial Cooperation Promotion Conference is held in Renaissance Harbor View Hotel Hong Kong on Jan 15. [Photo/Xinhua] 

Guangzhou's financial sector has developed rapidly in recent years, with industrial value-added figures increasing 133 percent over the past five years, ranking first among cities in China. The value-added of the city's financial industry hit 200 billion yuan ($31.1 billion) in 2017, 10 percent of its GDP. The financial industry has become the fifth pillar of the city. 

As of the end of 2017, the total number of innovative financial enterprises introduced to the China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone surpassed 63,000; nearly 3,000 of them are Hong Kong-based financial service firms. The total value of cross-border RMB settlements in Guangdong reached 13.87 trillion yuan, 9.45 trillion yuan of which was settled with Hong Kong. Moreover, the total number of Guangdong-based companies listed on Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited reached 217 -- all these statistics indicate the solid behind-the-scenes cooperation between the financial sectors of the two cities.

According to Qiu, Guangzhou will enhance financial cooperation with Hong Kong in five ways, including cooperation in cross-border financial services and between financial institutions and green finance collaboration.