On August 26, 2

01

0, the State Council released the “Overall Development Plan for Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone of Shenzhen,” marking the establishment of the Qianhai Cooperation Zone. 

 

Located on the east coast of the Pearl River and west of the Nantou Peninsula, it originally covered an area of 15 square kilometers and consisted of three sections, namely Guiwan, Qianwan and Mawan. Planned, deployed and promoted by President Xi Jinping, the advancement of the development and opening of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone is a major measure of the country’s reform and opening-up initiative in the new era.

 

On September 6, 2

02

1, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council officially released the “Plan for Comprehensively Deepening the Reform and Opening up of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone” (Qianhai Plan), providing a new major historical opportunity for the reform and development of Shenzhen and Qianhai in this new development stage. The Qianhai Plan clearly states that the geographical scope of Qianhai will be further expanded, and the total area of Qianhai will be expanded from 14.92 square kilometers to 120.56 square kilometers.

 

Currently, Qianhai includes the Guiwan, Qianwan and Mawan areas covering the original 14.92 square kilometers, and now includes Shekou and the Dananshan and Xiaonanshan mountains area of 22.89 square kilometers, the Bao’an International Airport and its surrounding areas of 30.07 square kilometers, the central Bao’an District and the Dachan Bay area of 23.32 square kilometers, and the convention and exhibition new city and the marine new city area of 29.36 square kilometers.

 

After the expansion, Qianhai as an international bay area now has several core development elements such as an airport hub, a seaport hub, convention and exhibition business centers, and modern services. In terms of its environment, Qianhai is rich in mountain and sea resources, with 68 kilometers of coastline, 28 rivers emptying into the sea, 2 nature reserves, 8 city parks, and 3 islands; in terms of transportation, Qianhai has an international airport, 2 railway stations, 6 port terminals, 6 ports open to the outside world, 1 intercity rail, 7 metro lines, and 6 high-speed expressways (including 1 cross-border channel). The ecological and transport advantages provide strong support for Qianhai to deepen the area’s reform and opening up.

Current industrial layout

Qianhai will focus on the productive service industries that are dominated by finance, modern logistics, information services, science and technology services and other professional services, and will vigorously promote and support the development of living services and public services, concentrate on superior resources, develop a headquarters economy, promote the concentrated development of modern services, and build an advanced modern service industry system.

 

According to Qianhai’s comprehensive planning, Qianhai will build an urban planning structure of “three zones and two belts.” The three zones are: a core business zone in the Guiwan area that showcases the overall urban image of Qianhai, which focuses on the development of financial and other industries; a comprehensive development zone with complex functions in the Dachanwan area, which focuses on the development of productive services such as technology and information services; and a bonded port zone with the functions of a regional production organization center and an international supply chain management center in the Mawan area, which focuses on the development of modern logistics and other industries.

 

The two belts refer to the coastal leisure belt and the comprehensive functional development belt. The former connects the three major areas of Qianwan, Mawan and Guiwan to lay out functions such as urban culture, leisure and public services, and thus forms a high-quality coastal public activity belt integrating ecology, landscape and culture. The latter relies on rail and other public transportation services to build a comprehensive functional development belt that focus on comprehensive functions such as exhibition and trading.

 

Future industrial layout

On June 6, Shenzhen issued guidelines on developing strategic emerging industrial clusters and fostering future industries that will be the backbone of the city’s industrial and technological revolutions. According to the orientation document, Shenzhen will focus on developing 20 globally competitive strategic emerging industrial clusters and fostering eight future industries to gain an edge in these industries.

According to the instructions made in the guidelines, a modern fashion industry agglomeration zone, an intelligent robot industry agglomeration zone, as well as some major projects such as the New Marine City and Shekou International Ocean City will be built in Qianhai. These will play a guiding role in optimizing the industrial layout of Qianhai and improving the competitiveness of Qianhai’s industrial chain and supply chain.

 

Modern fashion industry agglomeration zone

Qianhai is one of the regions on the Chinese mainland that has a close connection and cooperation with Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s cultural industry was born from Chinese commercial advances and exchanges between the East and the West, and has formed unique regional features and has occupied a sound place in the global cultural market. When Qianhai taps the international market and attracts Hong Kong and Macao enterprises and young talents, it can make full use of Hong Kong’s prosperous modern fashion industry to realize a win-win situation.

 

Intelligent robot industry agglomeration zone

The guidelines proposes to focus on the development of industrial robots, service robots, specialized robots, unmanned aerial vehicles and ships and rely on areas such as Qianhai to construct demonstration zones for technological innovation, high-end manufacturing, and integrated applications of the intelligent robotics industries.

 

After geographical expansion, Qianhai now covers part of the Bao’an area, which allows Qianhai to rely on the strong manufacturing industry foundation of Bao’an to form a complete intelligent robot industry chain that connects R&D, manufacturing and sales.

 

In the future, Qianhai has great potential to expand the application scenarios of intelligent robots in high-end manufacturing such as electronic information manufacturing, automobiles, and aerospace.

Marine science and technology innovation hub, modern marine service industry agglomeration zone

After geographical expansion, the Greater Qianhai area covers a sea area of 630 square kilometers, 13 islands, a coastline of 68 kilometers, and 7 ports. There are more than 2,000 registered marine-related enterprises covering 11 industries.

 

In the future, Qianhai will focus on the four aspects of “promoting cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong and international exchanges in the marine field, accelerating the settlement of major marine-related projects, carrying out in-depth cooperation and exchanges, and assisting in organizing public welfare activities” to develop the marine industry and provide marine enterprises with favorable taxation, talent, and office space policies.

 

At present, Qianhai has proposed the idea of focusing on the development of three major industries of high-end marine service industry, emerging marine industry and traditional marine industry, and several important marine industry clusters such as the New Marine City, the Dachanwan Bay, and the Shekou International Ocean City.

 

The New Marine City cluster will serve as a pioneering example of a global ocean center city and build a “1+2+3” blue industry system, including a core industry of marine electronic information and big data, 2 key industries of marine high-end intelligent core equipment and marine professional services, and 3 future industries of marine new energy, marine new materials, and deep-sea resource development.

 

The Dachanwan Bay cluster includes two marine industry agglomeration zones of the Blue Future Science and Technology Park and the National Oceanic Fishery Base. The former has been completed and is attracting investment; the latter will mainly construct five functional areas of fishery front-end operation area, fishery leisure area, harbor basin (fishing boat anchoring area), modern logistics area, and international aquatic product trade and exhibition area.

 

The Shekou International Ocean City cluster will form a “3+4+X” industrial system, that is, to enhance the development of three major adventurous industries of marine transportation, marine oil and gas development, and marine cultural tourism; four core industries of high-end marine equipment, marine electronic information, cruise economy, marine High-end services; and a spatial layout of cutting-edge marine  technologies.