SHENZHEN: China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA) is lucrative, with its combined gross domestic product (GDP) of 14 trillion yuan (US$2 trillion) last year – larger than that of the whole of South Korea’s.
But some areas have not yet realised their potential, said observers. Among them is Qianhai, a district within the southeastern city of Shenzhen.
Shenzhen and eight other municipalities in Guangdong province, along with the two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao, form the Greater Bay Area.
The GBA was established by China in 2019 as part of the country’s national economic development strategy.
The megalopolis, with a population of over 86 million people, generated about 11 per cent of China’s GDP last year.
Qianhai is attractive on paper – situated near an airport and connected by bridge to Hong Kong. It was once even hailed as the next Hong Kong, but proposals to realise such an ambition failed as plans for open information access fell through.
The district’s appeal soon waned against the rise of central Shenzhen, where many foreign businesses are now concentrated.
