With finance as a pillar industry, Zhuhai will create first-class political and business environments and high-quality and efficient services for financial institutions and talents, says Guo Yonghang, Party secretary of the CPC Zhuhai Municipal Committee.

Guo made his remarks at the opening ceremony of the 2nd Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Finance Forum in Zhuhai on Nov 24. How all three areas will exert respective advantages in pursuit of finance-propelled high-quality development was the spotlighted question at the event.

Wang Yimin, vice president of the Development Research Center of the State Council, stated that modern financial systems are essential to the high-quality development of the Greater Bay Area. He said this entails developing a cross-border finance and supply chain, innovation of financial science and technology, and insurance cooperation between the regions.

Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Finance Forum [Photo by Zhong Xia / Zhuhai Daily]

Xu Ze, chairman of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong & Macao Studies, said Zhuhai should help Macao establish a financial service platform for Chinese- Portuguese-speaking countries.

Meanwhile, Xu added, construction of a cross-border financial cooperation demonstration zone in Hengqin should be accelerated. The two moves will further extend the "physical space" of Macao's financial development and transform Macao's connection to Portuguese-speaking countries into a real driving force, a differentiated development path from Hong Kong's as an international financial center, he said.

Lin Wu, director general of the Institute of Guangdong, Hong Kong & Macao Development Studies of Sun Yat-sen University, noted that the integrated development of finance, science, and technology with industry is the largest advantage and most distinctive feature of the Greater Bay Area.

According to He Xiaojun, director of the Local Financial Supervision Administration Bureau of Guangdong Province, cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao has a long history. To date, there are 187 Hong Kong- and Macao-funded financial institutions in Guangdong.

Guangdong revised the negative list of cross-border financial service under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangements (CEPA), built the Guangdong-Macao Cross-Border Financial Cooperation (Zhuhai) Demonstration Zone, and pushed forward the establishment of a mainland Hong Kong-Macao insurance service center to facilitate cross-border financial business, said He.

Huang Shanwen of the Monetary Authority of Macao said Macao is willing to cooperate with other Greater Bay Area cities, especially Zhuhai, which would bolster Macao and Hengqin as a test field of cross-border renminbi-settled financial products and services. 

The forum was hosted by the Research Institute of Finance of the Development Research Center of the State Council and Local Financial Supervision Administration Bureau of Guangdong Province. The Guangdong Province Financial Think Tank Association and Hengqin New Area handled it locally.

About 300 officials, financial institution and enterprise executives, and association and think tank experts and scholars from the three areas attended the event, which featured one master forum and four parallel forums.