(Yicai Global) Feb. 21 – Two districts in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou welcomed a batch of major projects worth more than CNY100 billion (USD15 billion) yesterday as part of the drive to develop the Greater Bay Area.

The 23 projects break down into 14 headquarters, five advanced manufacturing facilities and four innovation platform initiatives for the city's Huangpu and economic and tech development districts, China News Service reported. Many focus on Greater Bay Area construction and are planned for the city's science and technology parks. The others target technical cooperation, fintech and biomedicine.

Expected to yield operating income of over CNY370 billion, the projects come in response to a blueprint the central government released on Feb. 18 for a massive regional economic integration scheme that encompasses nine cities in Guangdong province along with the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. 

The Greater Bay Area will be the site of a future world-class urban agglomeration and an international science and technology innovation center, per the plan, which envisages creation of a superlative living environment and a model for high-quality development.

The two Guangzhou districts to receive the latest investment already boast more than 20,000 tech enterprises and 2,110 high-tech enterprises, with the annual output value of their products topping CNY400 billion, making up 78 percent of Guangzhou's overall figure.

Shenzhen Tian'an Junye Investments Development, which runs science and technology parks, will set up its Greater Bay Area headquarters in Huangpu district, introducing the mainstays of information technology, artificial intelligence and biopharmaceuticals. It also plans to build a technology exchange and transfer center for China's Belt and Road trade initiative, which is expected to achieve an operating income of CNY150 billion.

Other major projects include a high-performance medical device innovation center, a traditional Chinese medicine international innovation platform, and an intelligent TCM industrialization demonstration base and virtual reality research institute in the Greater Bay Area.

The region also plans to introduce a chip project valued at tens of billions of yuan, a leading power battery firm and an internationally renowned biopharmaceutical company.

Editor: Ben Armour