Why Hengqin again?
Hengqin's development status has been continuously improved in recent years: Zhuhai Special Economic Zone is one of the first four special economic zones established in China with a long history of opening to the outside world; China and Macao Special Administrative Regions are independent customs territories and international free ports, and they implement free trade policies and special monetary, foreign exchange and industrial development policies. Hengqin island is located in the southeast of Zhuhai Special Economic Zone, on the west side of the Pearl River Estuary, separated from Macau Special Economic Zone by only one river and one bridge (the nearest distance is less than 200m), and adjacent to China Hong Kong Special Economic Zone (about 4 1 nautical mile). South of the South China Sea, about 4 nautical miles from Daxi Waterway, an international route. As the largest island in Zhuhai, it is connected with the Continental Bridge Tunnel and relatively independent, with a small permanent population before development.
For the Macao Special Administrative Region, "narrow land, shallow water, lack of talents and single industrial structure" has long been the main bottleneck restricting its economic development.
Under the influence of the global COVID-19 epidemic, the consequences of this series of problems are more prominent. Macao's economy has been obviously impacted and affected, and various economic indicators have fallen sharply. According to statistics, in 2020, Macao's GDP will shrink by 56.3%, the export of gaming services and other tourism services will drop by 80.4% and 73.4% respectively, and the overall export of service industries will drop by 74.9%.
Since the construction of an important platform to promote the moderate and diversified development of Macao's economy, Hengqin has been shouldering the strategic mission of exploring a new mode of cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, giving full play to its experimental and demonstration role in further deepening reform, opening wider to the outside world and promoting cooperation, and leading all-round cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.
In terms of infrastructure construction, Hengqin's increasingly perfect transportation network provides a carrier for the convenient flow of various elements between Guangdong and Macao. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, as a strategic cross-border passage jointly built by the three places, makes Zhuhai the only city connected to Hong Kong and Macao by land. As an important bridgehead of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and a development zone around Macao, Hengqin has obvious geographical advantages.
In terms of improving the convenience of people's lives, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has gradually opened a cross-border electronic bill direct payment service between Guangdong and Macao to facilitate Macao residents to pay their living expenses in Guangdong. From March 2065438 to March 2009, Hengqin opened the first cross-border office pilot building-Hengqin Headquarters Building, and opened the "Hengqin-Macau Cross-border Commuter Line", with 24 flights between Macao and Hengqin every day. At present, nearly 300 Macao enterprises have set up cross-border offices in Hengqin.
"Hengqin is developing very fast. When I first came to Hengqin in 2020, many places were still under construction. Few people traveled from other places because of the epidemic, and there were only a handful of pedestrians on the road. By the second half of 20021,more and more people were working and living in Hengqin. Every time I come, I can obviously feel the travel pressure during peak hours. The passenger flow of some business people serving the surrounding communities and office areas has increased significantly, and Hengqin has become more and more prosperous. " Ray Wu, general manager of Zhuhai Shenqi Investment Consulting Co., Ltd. told Caijing reporter, "I have been living and working in Shanghai before, but because I recognized the development of Zhuhai, I finally decided to take Zhuhai as the headquarters and develop new business in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area."
The implementation of a series of plans also needs specific local policies and industrial support. On March 6, 20 1 1, the Guangdong provincial government and the Macao sar government signed the Guangdong-Macao cooperation framework agreement. On April 19, Guangdong-Macao Cooperative Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Industrial Park was officially launched as the first landing project for Guangdong-Macao government to jointly develop Hengqin.
Since 2009, the gross domestic product of Hengqin has increased from 285 million yuan to 40.7 billion yuan, the accumulated investment in fixed assets has exceeded 330 billion yuan, and there are more than 55,000 registered commercial entities, including more than 4,400 Australian-funded enterprises, with a registered capital of over 654.38+03 billion yuan, making it the most concentrated investment area in China.
However, with the cooperation gradually entering the deep water area, Hengqin also faces a series of challenges such as how to speed up the deep docking of Guangdong and Macao planning, deep cooperation of mechanisms, deep convergence of rules, deep linkage of industries and deep integration of cities. ?
In fact, this is similar to the construction requirements for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to promote the development of the "9+2" urban system. Compared with Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and even the Pilot Free Trade Zone, Hengqin Guangdong-Macao Deep Cooperation Zone undertakes a more special mission, with a very clear direction and a very clear functional orientation. The core is to cooperate to solve the deep-seated contradictions and problems faced by Macao in the development process and promote Macao's better integration into the overall situation of national development. "