On July 1, 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission signed Framework Agreement on Deepening Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Cooperation in the Development of the Bay Area with the governments of Guangdong Province, Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR, marking the official kickoff of GBA. Since then, numerous efforts have been made to create world-class bay area and GBA has seen robust development under the “One Country, Two Systems” principle and become a new icon of China’s quality development.

GBA includes nine cities in Guangdong Province, Hong Kong SAR and and Macao SAR. The statistics show that the 56,000-km2 GBA, covering less than 1 percent of the country's land area and home to about 5 percent of the population, contributes over 12% of the country’s GDP, and can be regarded as one of the most dynamic economies in China with the highest opening-up level. As a pioneer in the country’s reform and opening up, GBA also plays an important role in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with the international shipping center in Hong Kong, and world-class inland ports and aviation hubs in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Compared with the three well-established bay areas, namely New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo, GBA is a new comer that enjoys a number of late-mover advantages. It will benefit from the sophisticated supply chain, industrial chain and fund chain for manufacturing, while the integration of manufacturing and innovation will add another competitive edge in the future.

The idea of GBA was firstly put forward in 2015 and included into the country’s Thirteenth Five-year Plan in 2016. The Framework Agreement was signed and included into the Central Government’s Report on the Work of the Government and the report of the 19th CPC National Congress in 2017, while the Outline Development Plan for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area was released in 2019. All these initiatives show that GBA development has been expanded and deepened step by step.

In 2018, Hong Kong high-speed railways joined the operation of the railway network of the Chinese Mainland, and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge was put into operation. The infrastructure has been made available for the integrated development of GBA. In the future, Hong Kong, Macao and the nine cities in Guangdong will leverage their competence for integrated development, and interact with Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration and Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration to promote the country’s innovative development and provide new engines for the local and world economy.