China drafts plan for building Greater Bay Area into int'l technology innovation center

BEIJING, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- China is drawing up an implementation plan for building the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area into an international science and technology innovation center, the Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily reported on Wednesday.

According to industry insiders, technological innovation will be on top priority of the Greater Bay Area's development in the future. The market barriers and institutional obstacles are expected to be removed in an effort to promote free flow of the talents and funds.

For example, the authorities may relax visas and residence permit policies for the foreign high-level talents, and create a high-level talent pooling platform, said the report.

In addition, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao will build a technology innovation corridor covering Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao, with reference to the development path of the world's leading bay areas, and promote coordinated development of science and technology innovation in the area.

To support the science and technology innovation in the Greater Bay Area, the local authorities have also released a string of policies, in succession.

Earlier, Guangdong Province unveiled a guideline to strengthen basic research and application foundation research to further enhance the original innovation capability, and support construction of the innovation center in the Greater Bay Area.

On September 21, Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong Province, also released a three-year plan to promote deep integration of innovation chain, industry chain, capital chain and talent chain and build an innovation ecosystem with local characteristics, and strive to initially establish an international technology industry innovation center in 2020.

In early 2017, Hong Kong and Shenzhen signed a deal to jointly build an ­innovation and technology park.

The ­innovation and technology park will explore the implementation of more convenient personnel entry and exit policies, pilot the policy of cross-border movement of science and technology funds, and set up a green channel for entry and exit of science and technology venture capital funds. (Edited by Hu Pingchao, hupingchao@xinhua.org)