Explainer | What is Guangzhou’s role in the Greater Bay Area master plan?
- Guangzhou has launched expansion plans for its aviation and railway network, part of its push to become a global transport hub
- Bay area blueprint encourages city to improve modern financial services regime
Guangzhou, the provincial capital of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, has been identified as a core engine for regional development in the master plan of the Greater Bay Area (GBA), the cluster of 11 cities including Hong Kong and Macau.
It is the most populous city, with 15 million residents. Guangzhou’s gross domestic product grew 6.8 per cent to 2.36 trillion yuan (US$364.4 billion) in 2019, the third largest in the bay area after Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Its output exceeded those of Denmark, South Africa and Malaysia, according to World Bank data.
In the first nine months of 2020, the city’s economy further expanded by 1 per cent, while Shenzhen’s rose 2.6 per cent and Hong Kong’s GDP slumped 5.9 per cent, according to official statistics.
Guangzhou focuses on advanced manufacturing, with cars, electronics and petrochemicals as its three pillar industries. It is home to major Chinese carmaker Guangzhou Automobile Group, as well as tech giant NetEase Inc.
Whereas Hong Kong’s economic prosperity can be traced to the 1950s, Guangzhou has served as an important foreign trade port in China for more than 2,000 years. Known as the “millennium capital of business,” the historic port on the old maritime Silk Road was once famed for its Chinese tea, silk and ceramics.
