As covered in yesterday’s news, the Guangdong government is pushing new credit toward SMEs in different sectors. One way of doing this is to make cheaper loans available to companies in need of “technological upgrading”. Such companies would be following a well-worn path. As we reported recently in another news item, Guangdong companies have spent xdxx over the past xx year on upgrading. In fact it could be said that the story of the GBA is the story of a region that is constantly engaged in the never-ending process of technological upgrading.
Nevertheless, sometimes it takes the China Daily to make crystal clear what the government’s priorities are. And so we read today that: “As the shadow of escalating Sino-US trade tensions looms over China, tech companies in the Greater Bay Area have been accelerating their upgrades to innovation and technology.”
“Onshoring” is a game two can play, the state-run media group seems to be saying, pointing out that Hong Kong robotics startup, Roborn Dynamics, has shifted its market focus from the US to the mainland.
It’s not just in production, but research as well. Hong Kong-based unicorn SenseTime has been “adhering to independent R&D in artificial intelligence”, it says.
Shang Hailong, the company’s managing director, encapsulates the prevailing sentiment in suggesting the region should: “ Further deepen the collaboration of enterprises, universities and research institutions to drive the innovation and technology companies forward and turn the crisis into opportunities.”
George Leung Siu-kay, an adviser of the HSBC’s Asia-Pacific business, said on an HSBC forum that the US-China trade dispute could speed up the development of the Bay Area, as China will focus more on domestic consumption to drive the country’s economy and the region could be a strong momentum for the economic growth.
We couldn’t agree more.
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