Zhuhai, a city of only 40 years in Guangdong province, has vowed to map out a high-quality growth plan to embrace historic development opportunities.

As a powerhouse on the western bank of the Pearl River Estuary, Zhuhai was one of the earliest special economic zones in China, and has been placed at the forefront of reform and opening-up.

According to the Zhuhai government, the city's GDP reached 291.5 billion yuan ($41.11 billion) in 2018.With more than 3,000 international trade enterprises, the city has ranked among China's top 1o for years in terms of foreign trade.

The 55-kilometer-long Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is the longest sea crossing in the world. [Photo by Zhu Ruisheng / For China Daily]

With the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in 2018 and the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Zhuhai is closer than ever to its goal of becoming a regional gateway and Zhuhai wants to become a quality development model among coastal cities, officials said.

In recent years, Zhuhai built the Hengqin section of the China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone and the Pearl River Delta National Innovation Demonstration Zone and it has achieved remarkable results.

Last year, Hengqin, which was included as part of the China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone in 2015, announced a package of policies. They included 66 measures covering 18 areas to seek quality economic development and broaden its appeal to the world.

As of 2018, more than 60,000 business entities had settled down in Hengqin. The Hengqin FTZ saw its GDP reach 24.4 billion yuan in 2018 with an average annual growth rate of 29.1 percent during the past four years.

So far, Zhuhai has established trade relations with more than 220 countries and regions. In 2018, a total of 3,973 new foreign-invested enterprises were set up in the city, an increase of 153.9 percent from the previous year. The total foreign investment value exceeded 15.6 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 30 percent compared with the same period last year.

Zhuhai is prioritizing innovation. Over the past few years, the city government has insisted upon boosting innovation and creating a scientific and technological innovation system.

It is promoting the construction of high-level universities such as the Zhuhai Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, boosting scientific and technological innovation. It has also launched plans to attract more talent from around the world.

The city also issued measures to cultivate and introduce leading industries, offering beneficial policies, funding, talent and land supports for the development of entire industrial chains. Zhuhai aims to cultivate a batch of unicorn enterprises - startups valued at over $1 billion - and gazelle enterprises - high-growth companies - via its various investment funds.

So far, Zhuhai is home to more than 2,000 high-tech enterprises. Many of them, such as Yunzhou-Tech and Naruida, are set to be qualified to unicorn status.

Zhuhai has implemented measures to strengthen opening-up and attract investment, such as providing enterprise headquarters projects with up to a 100-million-yuan in financial assistance.

The Belt and Road Initiative and the FTZ construction, as well as a series of high-level international exhibitions held in Zhuhai are expected to bring more opportunities to the city to improve its capacity for innovations and industry strength, officials said.