Aerial photo taken on Aug. 18, 2020 shows the Hengqin Port.  Photo: Xinhua

China on Sunday rolled out a slew of measures, ranging from tax cuts to improved market access, to build a Guangdong-Macao in-depth cooperation zone that focuses on crucial industries such as integrated circuit, electronic components and new materials in Hengqin, an island located in the city of Zhuhai in South China's Guangdong Province just across the Macao Special Administrative Region.  

The 106 square kilometer area of the cooperation zone will be built into a new platform to reflect Macao's diverse development, setting a regional example to demonstrate the advantages of the "one country, two systems," according to a plan jointly issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday. 

According to the plan, the government will focus on tech research and development of high-end manufacturing industries in the cooperation zone, with input on specific industries such as integrated circuits, new materials, new energy, big data, artificial intelligence and bioscience. 

The zone will also speed up the establishment of a microelectronic industrial supply chain that includes chip design and testing. 5G application demonstration projects and the next-generation internet industrial clusters will also be established.

Besides high-tech industries, the government will also develop Macao's localized industries in the cooperation zone like traditional Chinese medicine. For example, the government will allow Chinese medicine and related food products that are registered, approved and produced in the cooperation zone to use the label "designed in Macao," or "manufacturing supervised in Macao." It will also study how to simplify the IPO approval procedures for certain Macao pharmaceutical companies that seek to list in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. 

For the financial industry, the government will adopt an open attitude toward potential investors from home and abroad, encouraging investors to set up multiple-currency investment funds as well as support overseas investors to use the yuan in their deals. It will also encourage the cooperation zone to open up more in services industries by lowering the threshold to access the market for financial institutions funded by Macao that establish banks or insurance institutions locally.

The government will also back the cooperation zone with favorable policies. For example, it will reduce the corporate income tax on companies that meet certain requirements in the zone to 15 percent, while scrapping the tax for any income in incremental overseas direct investment on tourism, modern services and high-tech companies in the cooperation zone. 

Global Times