Shenzhen. Photo: VCG

Detailed measures on financial opening-up and the application of advanced technology, issued by the central government on Sunday, will help build Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, into a socialist demonstration area in the next five years.

In the process, China aims to leverage the tech powerhouse's edge in innovation and help the city to attract more global expertise amid the relentless US government crackdown on the tech rise in China, analysts said.

The new measures will also enable the city to coordinate its role with its neighbor Hong Kong in speeding up the yuan's internalization and attracting more foreign capital to the city, to smash the US conspiracy to push for a financial decoupling with the world's second-largest economy.

The detailed measures, especially policies aimed at cutting red tape for technology professionals to develop their careers, will enrich Shenzhen's high-end talent pool and build up its competitiveness against world-class innovation centers such as Silicon Valley, California, Bai Ming, deputy director of the Ministry of Commerce's International Market Research Institute, told the Global Times.

"Silicon Valley became the incubator of some of the best technology companies in the world because it has access to the best talent from all over the world," Bai said.

According to the document jointly issued by the general offices of the Communist Party of China's Central Committee and the State Council, Shenzhen will explore ways to simplify the application process for foreign technology experts to stay and work in the city, including work visas and permanent residency there.

Foreigners will also have easier access to professional qualification tests in China.

"Almost every province in China has meted out policies to attract the best people in technology," Bai added. "But for Shenzhen, which is already China's technology frontier, the competition for global talent will be a matter of life and death, especially amid increasing pressure from the current US government."

The technology standoff between the US and China continues. The US has moved to cut off major supplies to Chinese technology companies including Huawei and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, and concerns have been rising that the US will threaten to cut China out of the US dollar financial transfer system known as SWIFT.

But Shenzhen also enjoys advantages that will help it to develop its edges in technology and finance against the rising headwinds, thanks to its unique positioning as the center of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Liang Haiming, dean of the Hainan University Belt and Road Research Institute, told the Global Times on Monday.

"As a neighboring city to Shenzhen and a global financial hub, Hong Kong will also contribute to building a world class financial center in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, supported by the latest policy to further open up the system," Liang said. 

In the measures released on Sunday, local companies from Shenzhen will get support to be listed on overseas stock exchanges, and several financial innovations, including those that involve the internationalization of the yuan, will get their first trials in Shenzhen. The city will also attempt to establish a financial regulatory system that can be incorporated into the global market.

"The new measures in Shenzhen to open up its financial system will help China lead economic globalization as the current US government goes further off track," Dong Shaopeng, an adviser for the China Securities Regulatory Commission, told the Global Times.