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ht view of the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao

At a more micro-level, the guiding document The principal goal of the region is to ease the flow
introduces new pilot programs that will test of goods, people, and capital within the region.
new reform measures, such as Chinese bank
account reforms to allow the pooling of Under the newly released guidelines, the financial
multiple currencies in one account. industry, which already plays a prominent role
here, will receive more support for its cross-
Most notably, the document looks at common border financial services, transactions, and
recurring hurdles for businesses like cross- investments through relaxation of restrictions,
border foreign exchange, foreign currency cash piloting cross-border processes, and upgrading
pooling, internationalization of RMB, and the financial infrastructure.
cross-border exchange of financial products.
This boost in intraregional connectivity and
Further integration will increase opportunities more cross-border transactions will spur on
in the GBA other dominant industries in the region as well,
including advanced manufacturing, technology
The Greater Bay Area is an ambitious national and trade.
plan aimed at integrating the two Special
Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Together, the new measures are well-placed to
Macao, together with the nine cities across the allow the GBA to rival other well-known city
Pearl River Delta, namely Guangzhou, Huizhou, clusters, such as the San Francisco Bay Area and
Dongguan, Shenzhen, Jiangmen, Zhuhai, the Tokyo Bay area.
Zhongshan, Foshan, and Zhaoqing.
Foreign businesses should act now to leverage
The GBA region encompasses a total population the growing opportunities within the GBA as the
of 71 million people and has an economy worth plans in the blueprint start to come into fruition.
an estimated US$1.6 trillion – making it the Businesses that tailor their strategy to the plan’s
world’s 13th-largest if it were a stand-alone priorities will be best placed to benefit from its
economic entity. ambitious agenda.

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