Liu Yilei, a well-known economist, chief consultant of China Comprehensive Development Research Institute, and chairman of China Token Digital Economy Research Center, delivered a speech at the meeting titled "Promoting High-Quality Development of Digitalization in the Guangdong-

Editor's note: As the country celebrates the 101st anniversary of the Communist Party of China and the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, we focus on the theme of "new stage, new concepts and new pattern - promoting the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in the new era of high-quality development" , the 26th online seminar of the China Macro Forum was held on the afternoon of July 1. Liu Yilei, a famous economist, chief consultant of China (Shenzhen) Comprehensive Development Research Institute, and chairman of China Token Digital Economy Research Center, delivered a speech at the meeting titled "Promoting high-quality digital development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area".

now publishes the full text of Liu Yilei’s speech at the seminar and shares it with netizens.

Dear experts and friends:

Good afternoon everyone, today is the 101st anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland. It is a happy day. China Macro Network hosted "New Stage, New Concepts and New Patterns - Promoting Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao" The seminar "High-Quality Development in the New Era of the Greater Bay Area" has important special significance. I am very grateful to Director Jing Rong for the invitation to communicate and learn with the experts on the theme of high-quality development in the new era of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. According to the meeting arrangement , I will focus on the digital economy issue in the Austria-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. This is a fashionable topic. Please criticize me if I am wrong.

The construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is a national development strategy personally planned, deployed and promoted by President Xi Jinping. It is a major step for our country to enrich the connotation of " one country, two systems ", further expand reform and opening up, and enhance economic innovation and competitiveness. In practice, the goal is to further deepen cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, give full play to the comprehensive advantages of the three places, promote in-depth integration within the region, promote coordinated regional economic development, and build an international first-class bay area and a world-class city cluster that is suitable for living, working and traveling.

In recent years, under the correct leadership of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, all regions and departments have conscientiously implemented the spirit of various policies of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, deepened cooperation and jointly implemented the guidelines of the " Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Development Plan " In order to seek development, the construction of Greater Bay Area has achieved major achievements in stages. In 2021, the total economic volume of the Greater Bay Area will be approximately 12.6 trillion yuan, an increase of approximately 2.4 trillion yuan compared with 2017. The influence of International Science and Technology Innovation Center has been significantly enhanced, and the formation of new open economic system has been accelerated. It is more convenient for Hong Kong and Macao residents to live and develop in Guangdong. Citizens’ treatment in the field of people’s livelihood is fully implemented, and the formation of a high-quality living circle that is suitable for living, working and traveling is accelerating. The construction of infrastructure interconnection has been effectively promoted, and the "one-hour living circle" has been basically formed. The orderly integration of international legal and market-oriented business rules, and the construction of major cooperation platforms have effectively expanded the development space of Hong Kong and Macao. Digital development has achieved remarkable results. In 2020, the added value of Guangdong Province's digital economy was approximately 5.2 trillion yuan, ranking first in the country.

While seeing the achievements, we must also realize that the reform and development of countries and regions are inseparable from the current world structure and international situation. Faced with the impact of a once-in-a-century global epidemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, the world economy is currently undergoing major changes with a fragile recovery and a complex environment. The globalization pattern is showing a trend of great turbulence, great differentiation, and great reorganization. my country's economic development is facing triple pressures from demand contraction, supply shocks, and weakening expectations. Therefore, although significant achievements have been made in the construction of the Greater Bay Area in the past few years, there are still certain difficulties in further development. There are not only common contradictions, difficulties and problems faced by the global economy and national economy, but also contradictions and problems existing in its own development process. For example, the internal development gap is still large, and the coordinated development advantages of the three places have not been fully utilized. Prominent contradictions and problems include the unbalanced and mismatched structure of supply and demand and the need to strengthen the endogenous driving force of economic growth.

Against this background, we must, as always, follow the Party Central Committee and the State Council’s plans and overall arrangements for the construction of the Greater Bay Area, and work together to strengthen national strategic scientific and technological capabilities, maintain long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macao, and promote coordinated regional development.In particular, the new Hong Kong government should make good use of the institutional advantages of "one country, two systems", continuously explore development opportunities in the Greater Bay Area, actively integrate into the overall national development situation, and give full play to the role of a gateway hub for my country's high-level opening up to the outside world.

In addition to fully implementing various tasks in accordance with the established policy plans of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, I think we should also make efforts in the following four aspects:

First, work hard to accelerate the high-quality development of the digital economy. At present, the momentum of domestic economic recovery has weakened, and the triple pressure has further increased. Traditional industries are facing multiple difficulties such as weakening demand, rising factor costs, increasing pressure on resources and the environment, and overcapacity. Of course, crises also bring opportunities. With the new round of scientific and technological revolution and the widespread application of information technology, the digital economy based on new technologies such as big data, blockchain, cloud computing, and other new technologies is developing rapidly, promoting social production to be networked, digitalized and intelligently coordinated. , becoming the core driving force for the reform of the industrial economic system and the new engine for urban innovation and development, and also providing entrepreneurs with good development opportunities and opportunities to cope with the macroeconomic downturn. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has rich and huge basic data resources, a complete industrial chain that supports the development of the digital economy, and has gathered many high-tech information companies. In recent years, the development of the digital economy has continued to improve. The "2021 White Paper on the Development of China's Digital Economy Cities" shows that Shenzhen and Guangzhou are among the first-tier digital economy cities, Dongguan and Foshan are among the second tier, Zhuhai, Huizhou, Zhongshan and Jiangmen are among the third tier. Zhaoqing was not shortlisted. From this perspective, the development foundation of the digital economy in the Greater Bay Area is relatively good, but there are still problems of poor circulation of internal factors and uneven digital development. Therefore, I think we should pay attention to the following aspects.

First, establish an effective internal communication and connection mechanism. It is necessary to be based on regional realities, improve work coordination mechanisms, and deepen theoretical and practical research on digital economy. Focusing on the problems and shortcomings in the development of the digital economy, make overall plans and coordinated advancement, carry out reforms and innovations in the areas of commercial system connection, mutual recognition of professional qualifications, and standard docking, so as to create a highly open and deeply innovative digital bay area.

The second is to strengthen digital infrastructure construction. Further consolidate the construction of digital infrastructure such as network base stations and data centers, and accelerate the diversified and coordinated development of edge computing centers and supercomputing centers. Actively respond to the layout and construction of the national "Eastern Digital and Western Computing" integrated data center, and use western green energy to alleviate computing power shortages and improve computing power usage efficiency. It is necessary to accelerate the digitalization and intelligent upgrading of basic hardware such as roads, railways, airports, and ports to create an intelligent logistics system.

The third is to make the core industries of the digital economy bigger and stronger. We must take digital industrialization and industrial digital integration as the forerunner, and serve advanced manufacturing industries as the guide, promote the deep integration of the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence, and the real economy, and vigorously promote the transformation, upgrading, and optimized development of the manufacturing industry. Make full use of the advantages of the digital economy to promote the accelerated circulation of financial elements in Hong Kong and Macao and create a global digital financial service platform.

The fourth is to strengthen the construction of digital government . It is necessary to open up the data islands that exist between various regions and departments, and comprehensively promote the sharing and opening of government data. Promote the government's digital transformation in social governance, public services, and economic monitoring operations, build a collaborative and efficient government digital governance system, innovate government management and public service models, and comprehensively improve the government's performance of its duties.

Second, work hard to further expand reform and opening up. Currently, anti-globalization voices are rising in the international community. U.S. unilateral trade protectionism has hindered the rational flow of global resources, increased global production and circulation costs, and brought new challenges to national and regional development. To solve the new problems, new contradictions and new challenges we are facing, we need to further deepen reforms and implement high-level opening up to the outside world. First of all, we must emancipate our minds.Recognize the new requirements and new characteristics faced by reform and high-quality development, closely integrate high-quality ideas and changes in the external situation, especially grasp and handle the relationship between deepening reform, high-quality development, and openness and stability, and consolidate the ideological foundation. It is necessary to prudently and flexibly determine development ideas, formulate economic policies, implement macro-control and macro-control, make key breakthroughs in key links, and use high-quality "way" to shape the "power" of development. Secondly, we must deepen the reform of economic systems and mechanisms. It is necessary to promote market-oriented reform in breadth and depth and promote resource allocation to maximize and optimize efficiency. It is necessary to strengthen the normalized exchange, cooperation and coordination mechanism, break down market barriers and institutional obstacles under different laws, different administrations, and different tariff systems, and improve the efficiency and fairness of resource allocation and personnel flow. Finally, we must deepen the reform of ", delegating power, delegating regulation, and servicing ". We must make the optimization of the business environment a key focus, work hard on government public services and corporate commercial systems, and promote the construction of a high-quality business environment that is market-oriented, legalized, and nationalized.

Third, work hard to deeply integrate into the “Belt and Road” construction. Since President Xi Jinping put forward the initiative, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has achieved tangible and significant results, forming cooperation with 149 countries and 32 international organizations, and accelerating the formation of an all-round and high-level open economy. As a pioneer demonstration area for my country's reform and opening up, the Greater Bay Area is one of the regions with the highest degree of openness and the strongest economic vitality. It has superior location conditions and a solid industrial foundation. It is also an area with close exchanges with the outside world along the Maritime Silk Road. Therefore, it is necessary to further strengthen regional cooperation , create market integration in the Bay Area, promote the convenient circulation of production factors in the Bay Area, form an effective connection between the two international and domestic markets and two resources, and jointly create an important support area for the "Belt and Road Initiative". It is necessary to make full use of and consolidate the advantages of Guangdong, a major foreign trade province, Hong Kong International Financial Center, and Macao as an economic and trade service platform for Portuguese-speaking countries, deepen infrastructure connectivity, economic and trade cooperation, and cultural exchanges with relevant countries and regions, and build an important An influential international transportation and logistics hub and an international cultural exchange center.

Fourth, make efforts to strengthen coordinated development with the mainland. China's "14th Five-Year Plan" proposes to promote the development of the western region to form a new pattern, promote the revitalization of the Northeast to achieve new breakthroughs, promote the accelerated rise of China's central region, and encourage the eastern region to accelerate modernization. If the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area serves the overall development of the country, it must establish in-depth cooperation with the mainland. It is necessary to strengthen industry-university-research cooperation with mainland universities and scientific research institutions, and promote the transformation of scientific research results into the mainland, which is of great significance to solving problems in interdisciplinary fields and supporting emerging industries to become bigger and stronger. It is necessary to actively connect to the mainland's carbon trading market system to solve the problem of high carbon emission reduction pressure in the energy, industry, transportation, construction and other fields of the Greater Bay Area, and at the same time promote the effective transfer of related industries to the west. It is necessary to give play to the leading and driving role of cities, based on providing new experience for the development of the mainland, providing a new model for the country in terms of governance system and modernization construction, and better promoting the common development of developed and underdeveloped regions, the east, central, west and northeast regions, Promote coordinated regional development.