The 1stGuangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) Fair for Trade in Services & China (Shenzhen) Cross Border E-commerce Fair (CCBEC) opened on the morning of December 29 in Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center (Bao'an). Under the theme of "trade in services fosters development, digitalization promotes trade", the Fair will be held online and offline concurrently. On the opening day, in line with the global services trade trend, the online fair attracted more than 500 companies from home and abroad, such as Alibaba Cloud, Space Group, Messe München, PWC, China Post, China Construction Bank, China Merchants Bank, and Shenzhen Airlines, showcasing the most popular and excellent products, technologies and programs in the services trade sector, and highlighting technological innovation, digital trade, cross-border e-commerce and other frontier fields in the GBA. The Fair will fully deepen the services trade in the GBA, and also expedite the high-quality development of services trade in the GBA, invigorating the global services trade development.
As the first economic trade fair jointly held by Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao, the 1st Greater Bay Area Fair for Trade in Services was directed by the People's Government of Shenzhen Municipality, jointly supported by Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, Commerce Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality, and Qianhai-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone of Shenzhen, and co-organized by China Chamber of International Commerce, Messe Frankfurt (Shenzhen) Co Ltd., China Merchants Exhibition Management (Shenzhen) Co Ltd., Shenzhen OCT Greater Bay Development Co Ltd., and Beijing Talent International Exhibition Co Ltd.
At the opening ceremony, Kou Yanan, Deputy Commissioner of the Ministry of Commerce in Shenzhen delivered opening remarks and congratulated the successful holding of the Fair by Shenzhen in concert with Hong Kong and Macao. He pointed out that the GBA, among China's first regions to implement the opening-up policy, was one of the most vitalized and innovative regions, and that the Ministry of Commerce had been carrying out pilot programs for innovative development of trade in services in Shenzhen and other regions, and promoting the construction of service outsourcing pilot cities and export bases with distinctive features. The services trade scale of Shenzhen has been steadily at the forefront of Chinese cities, with import and export value exceeding USD 100 billion. Its structure has been continuously optimized, making it the only city with the trade surplus of over RMB 10 billion in China. The successful holding of the Fair and Summit will be of great significance for Shenzhen to build an opening-up platform and for Hong Kong and Macao to fit in China's development.
《Kou Yanan, Deputy Commissioner of the Ministry of Commerce in Shenzhen》
"The Fair is a grand event to showcase the latest cooperation outcomes of the services trade in the GBA, and to deepen the exchanges and cooperation on digital trade. We should make the most of this Fair to seize the new opportunities brought by digital transformation, foster new businesses of digital trade, fully drive the high-quality development of services trade with new demonstration standards, and accelerate the construction of a powerful trading province. I hope that all participants could deepen exchanges and cooperation for mutual benefits in more fields and share great outcomes of the GBA cooperation and development through the Fair." Said Zhao Shangqun, Second-level Inspector of the Department of Commerce of Guangdong Province.
《Zhao Shangqun, Second-level Inspector of the Department of Commerce of Guangdong Province》
Zhong Zeyu, Vice President and Secretary General of the China Association of Trade in Services, was optimistic about the development of Shenzhen's services trade and pointed out three of its advantages in his video speech. The first is the industrial advantage. The GBA, relying on the huge manufacturing industry in the Pearl River Delta, can not only align itself with the global high-end service industry, thus realizing the upgrading and transformation of its manufacturing and foreign trade, but also bring about the new increment of its services trade after the upgrading. The second is the technological advantage. Shenzhen is at the forefront of scientific and technological innovation in China. It boasts unparalleled advantages over other domestic regions in terms of new business patterns and models spawned by digital technologies and cutting-edge technologies. For example, Shenzhen has been a leader in cross-border e-commerce. The third is the talent advantage. The GBA has what it takes for the free flow of talents to conduct services, which holds the key to the development of the service sector and trade in services.
《Zhong Zeyu, Vice President and Secretary General of the China Association of Trade in Services》
Mr. Peter Wong, Chief Representative of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in South China, and Mr. Vincent U U Sang, Acting President of the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, also delivered speeches via video. Peter Wong spoke of Hong Kong's well-developed service sector, which accounted for more than 94% of its GDP. The 14thFive-Year Plan made it clear to build the capacity of Hong Kong as eight major centers and support Hong Kong in developing a high-end and value-added service sector. Guangdong enjoys obvious advantages for developing an export-oriented economy and boasts numerous companies which are capable of engaging in transnational operations. In the current complex international context, those companies in Guangdong can make full use of the unique advantages Hong Kong enjoys under the policy "One Country, Two Systems", as well as Hong Kong's professional service capabilities and international service network in such areas as finance, innovative technologies, shipping & aviation, legal services and intellectual property trade. They can also continuously enhance the capabilities of transnational operations and risk prevention, and make better use of global resources to build global brands and serve the global market.
《Peter Wong, Chief Representative of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in South China》
As noted by Mr. Vincent U U Sang, the Government of Macao Special Administrative Region proposed the "1+4" industrial development strategy in its 2023 policy address. While promoting the upgrade of the comprehensive tourism and leisure industry, the government also strives to facilitate the development of four pillar industries, including healthcare, modern finance, high & new technology, exhibition trade, and culture & sports. In particular, Macao's comprehensive tourism and leisure industry will enter a new period of development opportunities next year. Six comprehensive leisure businesses will carry out a series of new investment plans, with the total investment in non-gaming projects such as leisure, culture, exhibition, etc. exceeding USD 12.4 billion (100 billion patacas), which will present more cooperation and development opportunities to firms in Shenzhen and Macao.
《Mr. Vincent U U Sang, Acting President of the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute》
Afterward, Huang Qiang, Deputy Secretary-General of Shenzhen Municipal People's Government, Kou Yanan, Deputy Commissioner of the Ministry of Commerce in Shenzhen, and Zhao Shangqun, Second-level Inspector of the Department of Commerce of Guangdong Province jointly announced the official opening of the 1stGreater Bay Area Fair for Trade in Services & China (Shenzhen) Cross Border E-commerce Fair.
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Summit on Development of Services Trade took place after the opening ceremony. Ms. Zhang Feimeng, Director of the Commerce Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality, delivered a welcoming speech to kick off the summit.
In her speech, Zhang Feimeng mentioned that the total import and export volume of Shenzhen's services trade in the first 11 months of 2022 exceeded USD 96 billion, registering a YoY increase of 12%. The export volume increased by nearly 20% to over USD 56 billion, with the trade surplus rising to nearly USD 17 billion. The 1stGreater Bay Area Fair for Trade in Services & China (Shenzhen) Cross Border E-commerce Fair will be held offline in Shenzhen early next year and is expected to be attended by more than 2,000 enterprises, she added.
At the summit, Prof. Chu Xiangyin, Director of the China International Brand Strategy Research Center, UIBE and Doctoral Supervisor of the University of International Business and Economics, introduced the development goals of China's services trade during the "14thFive-Year Plan" period, analyzed the current characteristics of services trade, and interpreted the future development trend.
Huang Yifei, Deputy General Manager of China Merchants Bonded Logistics Co., Ltd, shared his ideas on how to build a core bearing area in the GBA with the Qianhai Comprehensive Bonded Zone as the core, and empower the high-quality development of services trade in the GBA under the new dual-circulation development paradigm.
Yang Wen, President of SWIFT China, shared his views on the new momentum and future opportunities of cross-border payment in his speech titled New Cross-border Payment Experience to Drive Development of Services Trade in GBA.
Yang Chuandong, General Manager of Standard Chartered Bank in East China and President of Standard Chartered Bank Shanghai Branch, delivered a speech titled How to Better Empower the Financial Services Industry in the GBA.
Liang Ying, Chief Engineer of Microsoft (China) Co., Ltd, contributed to the discussion with her speech titled Industrial Meta-universe in the Eyes of Microsoft.
This summit brought together experts, scholars and well-known people in the line of business to discuss how to leverage the advantages of the domestic services trade industry and seize the opportunities of services trade and digital trade to facilitate the industry's leapfrog development and better blend into the new development paradigm.
It is learned that the fair will be held online and offline concurrently. The online fair will last three months from today and consists of seven sections, including knowledge-intensive trade in services, international transport and logistics, international financial services, trade in services in Hong Kong and Macao, Qianhai-Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation in trade in services, international professional services, and cultural tourism and others. Numerous services trade achievements and solutions by China's top 500 companies such as Alibaba Cloud, China Post, China Construction Bank, China Merchants Bank, China Minsheng Bank and Shenzhen Airlines, as well as industrial leaders including Hengyu Group, Munich Group, PwC, 1More, Andunip and CCTC HS Architects will be shared online. Various services will be provided for more than 500 enterprises, including service display, business matching and brand promotion. The exhibited services trade covers the services in business, communication, construction and engineering, distribution, finance, tourism, entertainment, culture and sports, transportation and other segments.
Online platform of Smart GBA Fair for Trade in Services
The offline fair, namely China (Shenzhen) Cross Border E-commerce Fair (CCBEC), is scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of 2023 and to be held at Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center (Bao'an). The CCBEC consists of three sections, namely cross-border e-commerce suppliers, e platforms and service providers. With an exhibition area of 60,000 square meters and more than 2,000 exhibitors, the fair mainly exhibits well-known cross-border e-commerce upstream and downstream firms, popular products and the latest technical service solutions. In addition to creating abundant business opportunities for the industry, the fair will also host a wide variety of events related to industry development, policies & regulations, marketing strategies, service support and investment & financing. It also focuses on the development and demand of the industry and aims to comprehensively upgrade the development of services trade.
As an important component of international trade and an important area of international economic and trade cooperation, trade in services plays a significant role in building a new development paradigm. With the foothold in the GBA, the Greater Bay Area Fair for Trade in Services & China (Shenzhen) Cross Border E-commerce Fair will fully seize the major historical opportunities of "seeking the growth driven, augmented and demonstrated by two areas". Relying on Shenzhen's natural geographical advantages and rich industrial resources, great efforts will be made to build an open and professional platform that covers leading enterprises in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao and aims to promote exchanges, transactions and cooperation in investment and financing of services trade. The deep integration of cross-border e-commerce with professional markets such as consumer goods, information consulting and payment services will be also advanced to further promote the rapid development of the services trade. Shenzhen will take this opportunity to deepen cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao, fully leverage their respective advantages in science and technology, industry, trade, culture, finance, economy, and tourism, facilitate the formation of a model area for cross-border trade with more convenient flow of factors, help Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and even China to better integrate into the international services trade market more deeply, and contribute to the building of China into a trade powerhouse.