Shenzhen's Expanded Role in the Greater Bay Area
A new policy guideline pledges a privileged role for Shenzhen in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area development plan and sets ambitious goals for the city to become a global leader.
Shenzhen was designated as one of the “four engines” in the outline development plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) published in February 2019.
Then, in August 2019, with Shenzhen nearing four decades as China’s pioneering Special Economic Zone (SEZ), the central government issued a fresh guideline announcing an expanded role for the city in the GBA’s development, and setting out a longer-term vision of a southern China supercity able to compete with the world’s best in competitiveness, innovation and influence.
The policy document, Building Shenzhen into A Pilot Demonstration Area of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, reaffirms Shenzhen’s place in the vanguard of China’s development and opening-up, confirms the city’s position as a science and technology driver in the GBA, and introduces a new ideological framework in the form of “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
