China’s Horizon
China’s Greater Bay Area fosters a new era of entrepreneurship
A new horizon beckons in China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA), a strategically important region that encompasses Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. Part of the 14th Five-Year Plan of National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China, the GBA, which has over 86 million inhabitants and a GDP of some $1.7 trillion, has defined itself as a powerhouse of creativity and innovation that is attracting entrepreneurs from around the world.
High fashion in Hong Kong
“The Bay Area is emerging as a lab for China’s future,” says designer, artist and performer-turned-entrepreneur Fiona Sit, who based herself in the GBA to pursue a dream of creating her own fashion company. Sit’s clothing brand, called Spiritunus, was established in 2016 in Hong Kong, a key region
Hong Kong is historically known as a global center of capital markets. It is also where Sit traces her roots. Yet it was the region’s proximity to the Chinese mainland and other regions of the GBA—which have a reputation for manufacturing—that won her over.
It was “this ability to produce almost anything to specification, that gave me confidence to launch my fashion brand,” Sit explains, speaking on the China Next documentary, which features entrepreneurs from around the world that have established businesses in the GBA.
Precision medicine in Shenzhen
Like Sit, Zimbabwean researcher-turned-entrepreneur Lewis Lusuwi chose the GBA because it has all the elements necessary for him to realize his dreams—in his case, to conduct research and start a career in the field of precision medicine.
Lusuwi is an automation engineer at BGI Genomics, a life sciences company based in Shenzhen, one of the nine megacities dotted across Guangdong Province. Why choose Shenzhen? Because the “education here is really good, so it became a rather easy choice.”
For Lusuwi, it was not just Shenzhen’s quality research facilities that were a game-changer; the region’s sizable market, too, was attractive. Shenzhen has a population of around 17.5 million, a GDP of $475 billion, and a diversified economy led by industrial, construction and service industries.
Lusuwi has also been able to scale his research, leverage cutting-edge technology, and—at the same time— take advantage of low cost unit economics in Shenzhen.
“Being able to achieve that through automation was a landmark moment for me, and being able to see it used by the people within the lab… we could widen the availability of such low-cost genetic screenings.”
– Lewis Lusuwi, Automation Engineer, BGI Genomics
Autonomous aircraft in Guangzhou
For Fang Xin, it was, once again, the GBA’s manufacturing prowess that was a key draw, helping him realize a passion for automated aircraft. Xin is the COO at EHang, an autonomous aerial vehicle platform based in Guangzhou, another of Guangdong’s megacities.
With a sizable market similar to regional megacity Shenzhen, Guangzhou has some 18.5 million inhabitants, a GDP of over $420 billion, and an economy powered by three main sectors: industrial, construction and services.
But it was the megacity’s capacity to deliver next-generation technology, such as 5G infrastructure, including the internet of things (IoT) platforms, that drew Xin and his team to the region.
EHang is based at Huangpu Innovation Park, where they use 5G infrastructure for unmanned aerial vehicles to test their technology. “Using IoT platforms, we were able to build a 3D model in the air. It is equivalent to building countless highways in the air,” Xin explains.
In a fast-evolving industry where global standards are still being defined, the region has emerged as a leader in regulatory reform, allowing entrepreneurs to thrive.
“This year, the Civil Aviation Administration of China issued the aviation industry’s first unmanned aerial vehicle standard. It has turned our dreams into reality.”
– Fang Xin, COO, EHang
Advanced agriculture in Jiangmen
And it’s not just the largest megacities in the GBA that are attracting innovators. Victor Luo, for instance, chose to follow his dreams of establishing a startup in advanced agriculture by relocating to Jiangmen in Guangdong Province.
Jiangmen, with a population of 4.8 million and a GDP of $51 billion, is small relative to the megacities of the GBA. The city’s economic and R&D strengths, in agriculture in particular, spoke most to Luo.
“Our agricultural research first began in Hong Kong. But as our research grew, and became larger, we relocated to the present location at the National Agricultural Science and Technology Park in Jiangmen in 2016,” he explains.
Luo is the founder of Guangdong Tiancai Agricultural Co., Ltd., a startup that produces vegetables via aquaponics technologies. For Luo, a business administration graduate, relocating to Jiangmen was straightforward and allowed him to tap into the knowledge of locals to grow his company.
“One of the reasons why we moved to Jiangmen was because it had more complete sets of agricultural facilities (than Hong Kong). Another reason was the incubation policy for small and micro enterprises. The local farmers have helped us greatly. They taught us how to sow, how to sprout vegetables.”
– Victor Luo, Founder, Guangdong Tiancai Agricultural Co., Ltd.
China Next
From high fashion to precision medicine to unmanned aerial vehicles, advanced agriculture and more, the GBA has become a go-to region not just for dream chasers, but those who want their aspirations to come to fruition. Readers can find out more about the GBA via the Discovery-Greater Bay Area documentary
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