Nansha, Nanhai to cooperate for innovative development

Guangzhou’s Nansha district and Nanhai district of Foshan, another city in the south of China’s Guangdong province, struck a five-year framework agreement for collaborative innovation and strategic development on March 27.

With complementary advantages of the Nansha Free Trade Zone (FTZ) and the Nanhai Economic Development Zone, the two parties will take the lead in promoting deep integration of mechanism innovation and industrial development, and create an open area and innovative development community with high-level interconnected markets, efficient and convenient flow of resources, and living facilities.

The two sides will also establish a joint conference system in which both of their district-level Party Secretaries will serve as general conveners to improve the normal communication and coordination mechanism and to promote implementation of various tasks.

According to the protocol, the two districts will build a collaborative innovation demonstration zone, a platform economic cooperation pilot zone, and a shared social service zone that will include 12 specific resources such as an integrated urbanization credit system and linkage reinforcement between advantageous industries.

They will take Dali town, the vital link between the downtown areas of Guangzhou and Foshan, as a pilot zone.

At present, the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is in full swing, and opportunities for cooperation between Guangzhou and Foshan are unprecedented.

Nansha, located geographically in the center of the Bay Area, is a pivotal hub connecting the urban agglomerations on both sides of the Pearl River Estuary with the Hong Kong and Macao regions.

Between the approval of the Nansha FTZ and the end of 2019 the district made 506 institutional innovation achievements. Among them six were selected as best cases of FTZ operations across the country by the Ministry of Commerce.

Nanhai is located in the hinterland of the Bay Area. Since China’s reform and opening up, the South China Sea market economy has been full of vitality and various market entities have vigorously developed.

Now it has 11 industries with an annual output value exceeding 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion). The sectors of components, non-ferrous metals, smart home appliances, flat panel display devices and semiconductor lighting are leading a complete modern industrial system supported by a complete manufacturing supply chain.

Nansha’s Party Secretary Cai Chaolin and his Nanhai counterpart Yan Haobo attended the ceremony. Dong Ke and Gu Yaohui, respective mayors of the two districts, signed the document.