Published : 01/06/2024
What needs to be done for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA)?
In Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (the Development Plan), mentions seven major tasks.
This series of articles take a look at the achievements in each of these seven areas, with this article focusing on how the GBA "develop an international innovation and technology hub" at seven locations.
Innovation in GBA｜Hong Kong Science Park
In 2017, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) was accredited by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, becoming Hong Kong's first "national-level technology business incubator".
Occupying 22 hectares, Hong Kong Science Park is located at Pak Shek Kok.
It provides services and resources for technology companies, building an innovation and technology ecosystem that gathers the forces of "government, industry, academia, and research" to accelerate the commercialisation of research outcomes and assist Hong Kong's integration into the development of the GBA innovation and technology centre.
To date, more than 1,000 companies have "graduated" from the innovation and technology incubation programmes launched by Hong Kong Science Park.
The Shenzhen Branch of Hong Kong Science Park officially opened in the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Innovation and Cooperation Zone in September 2023, with the first batch of 16 Hong Kong enterprises and institutions having commenced operations.
This milestone event is seen as instrumental in advancing the collaboration model of "R&D from Hong Kong and Macao, manufacturing in Guangdong", which aims to establish the GBA as a hub for scientific research and industrial innovation.
The Development Plan specifically mentions supporting the development of Hong Kong Science Park, Cyberport, and others, while also promoting in-depth collaboration among Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao in areas such as entrepreneurship and incubation, transformation of scientific and technological achievements, international technology transfer, and technology services.
The aim is to develop the GBA into a globally competitive base for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.
According to the GBA Annual Report on Scientific and Technological Achievements Transformation 2023, the total contract value for the commercialisation of technological achievements in the GBA reached 12.1 billion RMB in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 9.8%, of which over 30% came from the manufacturing sector.
Innovation in GBA｜National new energy storage innovation centre
Advanced energy storage refers to new technologies other than pumped-hydro storage, including electrochemical energy storage and compressed air energy storage, and is an important "warehouse" for the new energy system.
The National New Energy Storage Innovation Centre, located in Baiyun District, Guangzhou, was approved for establishment at the end of 2023, and is one of the five national-level manufacturing innovation centres in the GBA.
National-level Manufacturing Innovation Centres represent vital national strategic forces, primarily focused on emerging industrial sectors. They aim to consolidate resources and facilitate the transition of laboratory innovations to industrial applications, with only one centre established in each specific field.
The Development Plan, in its section on "Developing High-level Sci-Tech Innovation Carriers and Platforms," proposes the construction and cultivation of a batch of industrial technology innovation platforms and manufacturing innovation centres.
As of 2023, the GBA has established five National-level Manufacturing Innovation Centres, ranking first in China in terms of quantity.
Among these, three are located in Guangzhou, covering three key sectors: printing and flexible display, high-performance medical devices, and new energy storage. The remaining two are based in Shenzhen, focusing on the key fields of ultra-high-definition video production technology and 5G mid-to-high frequency devices.
Innovation in GBA｜HK and Macao Youth Entrepreneurship Service Centre of Tianhe District
The headquarters of the Hong Kong and Macao Youth Entrepreneurship Service Centre in Tianhe District, Guangzhou, was officially inaugurated in 2019 and became one of the first youth innovation and entrepreneurship bases in the Greater Bay Area.
By 2022, Tianhe District had established 14 such bases dedicated to supporting youth innovation and entrepreneurship from Hong Kong and Macao, with a cumulative total of over 2,000 registered enterprises funded by Hong Kong and Macao investors.
The Development Plan proposes supporting cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao in fields such as start-up incubation, and jointly building platforms for the commercialisation of achievements, such as youth start-up and employment bases for Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.
The Greater Bay Area Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base Alliance were launched in December 2023, collaborating with nearly 80 innovation and entrepreneurship bases across the GBA to provide a one-stop information, promotion and exchange platform for Hong Kong youth starting businesses in the region.
Innovation in GBA｜China (Shenzhen) Intellectual Property Protection Centre
Intellectual property protection is an important part of building an international innovation and technology hub.
The China (Shenzhen) Intellectual Property Protection Centre, located in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, was unveiled and began operations on 26 December 2018, becoming a catalyst for innovation and technology in the GBA.
Since 2019, the Shenzhen Intellectual Property Protection Centre has cumulatively processed over 190,000 applications for special intellectual property funding support, disbursing more than 1.3 billion RMB to assist small and medium-sized enterprises in development and innovation.
The centre has established a "pre-examination + prioritized review" mechanism to accelerate the processing of patent cases, fostering over 1,400 high-value patents including BYD's Blade Battery and Tencent's blockchain technology.
It has also become one of the first pilot institutions facilitating priority examination of invention patents from Hong Kong and Macao within the Chinese Mainland.
The Development Plan proposes the need to strengthen the protection and application of intellectual property, improve cross-border collaboration mechanisms, and support Hong Kong in becoming a regional intellectual property trading centre.
Guangdong and Hong Kong established the Guangdong-Hong Kong Expert Group on Intellectual Property Cooperation in 2003, which had implemented 356 collaborative initiatives by the end of 2022.
24 new cooperative projects are scheduled for implementation across six major areas from the second half of 2022 through 2023, covering intellectual property trading and service collaboration between Guangdong and Hong Kong.
Read more: 7 Tasks of GBA｜Path of innovation in Greater Bay Area (Part Ⅰ)