On 28 November, Liang Huqing, chairman of Guangzhou Municipal Construction Group (GMC), delivered a keynote speech titled “"Great Opportunities, Great Strengths, and Great Future" at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Cooperation and Development Forum of the Asia Youth Leaders Forum 2021.

The full speech is as below.

Honorable Vice Secretary-General Gao from the People's Government of Guangzhou Municipality, 
Dear dignitaries, guests, ladies, and gentlemen,
First of all, I would like to thank the organizers for their cordial invitation and for this chance to come together to discuss the cooperative development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The topic I will be talking about today is "Great Opportunities, Great Strengths, and Great Future". Promoting the development of the Greater Bay Area is set forth by the CPC Central Committee under the leadership of comrade Xi Jinping as a great policy and a national strategy that General Secretary Xi Jinping has personally planned and promoted. They are new measures for the new age that aim to drive complete opening-up. As a participant and the main force in the construction of the Greater Bay Area, GMC is reaping great benefits from the opportunities brought by the development of the Greater Bay Area.

The Greater Bay Area has borne witness to our new chapter of growing into a Fortune 500 company. The Greater Bay Area has actually made us what we are. It is our driving force and enable us to stand among the top of the business world and discuss with all young Asian representatives, young leaders, and outstanding entrepreneurs here today on cooperation and opportunities in the Greater Bay Area.

Firstly, the Greater Bay Area abounds with great opportunities. Since the signing of the "Framework Agreement on Deepening Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Cooperation in the Development of the Greater Bay Area" in 2017, there has been rapt attention from the central government to local governments, and a wide range of support policies have been released. This has helped the Greater Bay Area achieve significant success in its development. By 2020, the Greater Bay Area's GDP reached 11.5 trillion yuan, accounting for one seventh of the national GDP. In the first half of this year, the Greater Bay Area’s GDP was 5.9 trillion yuan, over 100 billion yuan more than the entire province of Guangdong. According to forecasts, by 2030 the Greater Bay Area's GDP will reach 30 trillion yuan, the highest GDP of any bay area in the world. This massive economic capacity shows that the Greater Bay Area has vast room for growth and enormous potential. 

In the first half of this year, 4.2 trillion yuan’s worth of contracts were signed in the construction industry in Guangdong Province, with a year-on-year growth of 15%. This illustrates that as one of the pillar industries in the Greater Bay Area, the construction industry is facing an exceptionally favorable developmental trend. Particularly, construction of new and traditional infrastructure, rural revitalization, and new urbanization are expanding, which brings historic opportunities for the construction industry's development in the Greater Bay Area. Construction companies in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao must grasp these opportunities to deepen communication and cooperation and to achieve their own upgrade and value enhancement while promoting the development of the Greater Bay Area.

Secondly, the Greater Bay Area boasts great strengths. As one of the most important strategies in China, the Greater Bay Area is China’s plan to deepen opening-up and pursue high-quality economic development. The area enjoys favorable geographic advantages, as well as unique strengths and developmental prospects, which has attracted countless enterprises. In terms of the construction industry, I believe these are the strengths of the Greater Bay Area:

The first one is exceptional locational strength. The Greater Bay Area was the cradle of China’s reform and opening-up. GMC is the strongest construction company that has grown out of the Greater Bay Area in the whole of south China. It is also the primary enterprise in Guangzhou’s effort to create a trillion-yuan construction value chain. We are actively promoting the establishment of an alliance of Guangzhou construction companies. We are trying to give play to our advantages for resource integration in the industry, and to act our role as a leading company in the industry for synergistic development.

The second is clear policy strength. In order to create a world-class business environment, governments across the Greater Bay Area are sparing no effort to improve business environment. When we expanded our business in the Greater Bay Area, we clearly noticed these changes of smoother point-to-point and one-stop services. Because of greater coordination of personnel, resources, and mechanisms, our projects have broken ground faster.

The third is clear scientific and technological strength. There are five Fortune 500 enterprises in Guangzhou, placing Guangzhou at the forefront nationally. There are 12,000 national-level high-tech enterprises, the highest number for any provincial capital. 80% of higher-education institutes and 70% of researchers in Guangdong Province are located here, and there is deep cooperation between businesses, universities, and research institutes, which facilitates the development of key technologies. GMC is currently pushing for the establishment of a research institute for digital architecture, which aims to use the Greater Bay Area's scientific and technological resources to empower our transformation and upgrade, high-quality development, and greater role in the industry.

Thirdly, the Greater Bay Area offers great prospects. At present the world is experiencing changes unseen in a century. China is at the best stage of development since the modern age. The Greater Bay Area represents a vital link for China to communicate with the world, especially under the new “dual-circulation” development paradigm in which domestic and overseas markets reinforce each other with the domestic market as the mainstay. Thus, the Greater Bay Area presents historic opportunities with great prospects.

Our first mission is market expansion for the development of a dynamic bay area. In recent years, GMC has already established the Guangzhou model of state-owned company cooperation that can realize mutual gains for governments and enterprises and promote the high-quality development of construction enterprises. In the future, we will rely on the GMC brand and our premium qualifications to continue developing our business in the Greater Bay Area and surrounding markets. We will establish presence in all cities in the Greater Bay Area and within one hour of transit from airports. At the same time, we will replicate this Guangzhou model as we expand our business along the Belt and Road. GMC is working hard to achieve an operating revenue of 500 billion yuan by 2025.

The second is prefabricated construction for the development of a green bay area. We have positively responded to China’s carbon peak and carbon neutrality targets, followed closely developmental trends in the construction industry, and energetically developed prefabricated construction. Relying on the technological strength of our 40 subordinate high-tech companies, two research institutes, seven home-design institutes, four postdoctoral stations, and one national-level engineering sub-branch, we have established seven national-level highly-automated prefabricated construction bases across Guangzhou. We are partnering with the Hong Kong Institute of Architects and speeding up the construction of the Greater Bay Area High-End Equipment Manufacturing Innovation Center in Jixi Island, Huangpu District, to create a national-level demonstration platform of innovation in green-construction technologies as well as a green industry demonstration base. We have formed a prefabricated green-construction model and created a patented prefabricated technology system. We will bring about a green transformation in the construction industry in South China and help promote the development of a green Greater Bay Area.

The third is technological innovation for the development of an intelligent bay area. As a Fortune 500 enterprise, we have the sense of responsibility and capabilities. At GMC, we have always attached huge importance to technological innovation. We firmly believe that innovation is the number-one driving force, and talent the number-one resource. We have launched the one hundred global doctoral-degree holders attraction program, attracting outstanding talent from across the globe. At present we employ over one hundred PhD holders. These employees, under the guidance of leading experts from over 20 different fields, have formed over 10 innovation teams. They have been researching comprehensive, forward-looking, strategic, and pioneering key technologies in the field of construction, to develop our strengths in ultra-high-definition construction technology, large public building and venue construction, ancient-building restoration and maintenance, and underground spaces, among others. We have built a multitude of landmark buildings in Guangzhou, breaking many world records and setting new global standards for speed. Of the landmark buildings that can be seen on Guangzhou Television, over 80% were built by GMC. In the future, we will continue to attract high-end talent from across the world and become a hub for talent. We will provide housing allowance of 10 million yuan for high-end talent, and promote an even more outstanding business environment and atmosphere of technological innovation, to help enhance the Greater Bay Area's technological innovation capacity.

Dignitaries, guests, and young friends,
On this new journey towards a modern socialist country in all respect and the starting point toward the second centennial goal, the development of the Greater Bay Area is in full swing. GMC will follow the CPC Central Committee with comrade Xi Jinping as the core, uphold Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and implement the guiding principles of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC, and closely focus on the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. We will deepen cooperation with the young Asian leaders and outstanding youths, as well as advanced enterprises and governmental institutions, to contribute to the development of a world-class bay area and city cluster.