with two memorandums signed, representatives from the macao and shenzhen governments said they will cooperate more in innovation-related fields after a meeting held at the wuzhou guest house yesterday.
"innovation is not only about technology, it could also be about culture, education and finance," said xu qin, mayor of shenzhen. "so it is important to build an eco-system of innovation."
it's hoped that qianhai will be a platform connecting macao and shenzhen.
qianhai is in the shenzhen-hong kong modern service cooperation zone and the guangdong free trade zone.
xu said young entrepreneurs or makers from macao could establish their startups in an area called dreamworker. dreamworker was launched by the shenzhen municipal government to help young people with their startups.
leong vai tac, secretary for finance and economy from the macao special administrative region (sar), said the macao government also believes it is important to encourage young people to start businesses.
xu said that up to 70 billion yuan (us$10.94 billion) had been invested in research and development in shenzhen so far this year, and economic output created by innovation accounted for 4 percent of the city's gdp.
in qianhai, there are already 56,000 registered firms with up to 3,000 billion yuan worth of registered capital.
xu said educational cooperation — such as exchanges with the university of macao — is also an integral part of innovation cooperation. and the whole city could be the base of innovation cooperation.
at yesterday's meeting, government representatives signed two memorandums. one was to build the costal area that covers guangdong, macao and hong kong into a vital economic zone. the other was a renewal of a tourism cooperation memorandum.
xu said he hoped the coastal area could become an important economic zone, like the coastal areas near tokyo and san francisco.
both the shenzhen mayor and chui sai on, chief executive of the macao sar, witnessed the signing ceremony.
