The metropolitan area of Shenzhen and its surrounding satellite cities in southern China’s Guangdong province have gained prominence as the country’s version of Silicon Valley. The city is home base to illustrious science and hi-tech firms, such as Huawei Corporation, Baidu Inc. And Tencent Holdings.
The three companies listed above have generated huge revenues and profits: Huawei selling mobile devices and the world’s largest, telecom equipment manufacturer; Baidu operates China’s largest search engine while investing into AI (artificial intelligence) and Tencent runs the WeChat app, which has nearly 1 billion daily users worldwide.
Meanwhile, many aspiring inventors, scientists, developers and fin-tech investors have all moved to Shenzhen to gamble their fortunes to pursue their sci-tech dreams. They believe that this city is the prime location for setting up new companies that focus on research and development (R&D) in the fields of science and technology.
Shenzhen is an amazing city, since it’s nearby Hong Kong and Macau. China’s Central government has launched a new campaign, known as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area initiative. The ambitious drive is to connect the regional economies to spur deeper investments and to promote local businesses to ‘go global.’
The strategy appears to have been effective until protests and riots had erupted in Hong Kong, which would likely result in Hong Kong’s demise as a global financial hub for Asia.
Nevertheless, Shenzhen’s star still shines brightly. To boost the city’s science and hi-tech sectors, the Central, provincial and local governments are all coordinating to tap into fin-tech investment networks to help start-ups and established companies to form R&D centers.
Additionally, Shenzhen University and other campuses citywide set up seminars and forums to encourage businesses, developers, and scientists to meet and greet in order to discuss their respective ideas and plans.
The city is youthful, since many college students have migrated there to study and those graduating from other campuses nationwide flock to Shenzhen in search of greater business opportunities. STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) graduates in China are happy to call Shenzhen their new home. The average population of residents is 28 years old.
But a major drawback is that the cost of living is higher in Shenzhen than in any other city in China, which includes Beijing and Shanghai. The property and rental prices for apartments keep rising, but that’s because the regional economy is booming.
So let’s take a closer look at the bright prospects of Shenzhen’s economy. You can read an article posted by Asia Times with a link here:
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/shenzhen-to-free-currency-conversion-cash-flows/
According to the Asia Times:
“Xinhua reported that Shenzhen’s foreign exchange authority had streamlined the conversion and yuan purchase process and the time needed to finish a transaction would be slashed from hours in the past – mostly for verifying documents and issuing permits – to only a few minutes. But the pilot program is only applicable to Shenzhen.
Until now Shenzhen, also one of China’s largest exporters, has been hobbled by foreign exchange rules created decades ago. The bourgeoning tech center that is home to Tencent, Huawei, DJI and BYD booked an annual import and export volume of three trillion yuan (US$420 billion) in 2018, up 7% on a year ago.”
The new foreign exchange currency laws in Shenzhen’s metropolitan can prove effective. In prior times, many local business people would visit Hong Kong to make currency exchanges at cheap rates.
Hong Kong had many foreign exchange offices in the city and we can expect the same in Shenzhen in the near future.
