The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area was formally put forward in March 2016.
“The 13th Five-Year Plan for the National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China”, which clearly supports the important role played by Hong Kong and Macau in regional cooperation in the Pearl River Delta region and promotes Guangdong Construction of a major cooperation platform between Macau and Hong Kong Greater Bay Area and inter-provincial regions.
On July 1, 2017, under the witness of General Secretary Xi Jinping, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Lin Zhengyue, the Chief Executive of the Macau Special Administrative Region, Cui Shi’an, the head of the National Development and Reform Commission.
He Lifeng and the Governor of Guangdong Province Ma Xingrui signed the “Deepening “Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Cooperation to Promote the Construction of the Greater Bay Area Framework Agreement”, on October 18 of the same year, General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, clearly:
support the integration of Hong Kong and Macao into the overall national development Focusing on the construction of districts, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao and Pan-Pearl River Delta regional cooperation, we will comprehensively promote mutually beneficial cooperation between the Mainland and Hong Kong and Macau, and formulate and improve policies and measures to facilitate the development of Hong Kong and Macau residents in the Mainland.
On December 18 of the same year, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed at the Central Economic Work Conference that the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area should be scientifically planned and the coordination mechanism should be accelerated.
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area consists of two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau and nine Pearl River Delta cities in Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, and Zhaoqing.
The population has reached 70 million since the end of 2018. One of the regions with the highest degree of economic openness and strong economic vitality has important strategic significance in the overall national development situation.