GBA Brief

Hong Kong: First GBA legal exam held in three cities

On July 31, about 700 lawyers from Hong Kong and Macao took the first Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Legal Professional Examination, which was held in Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Shenzhen.

The exam, originally scheduled to be held earlier this year, was postponed because of the pandemic. After passing the exam and obtaining the practice certificate, lawyers with five years' experience or more from the special administrative regions will be allowed to provide legal services in the nine mainland cities inside the Greater Bay Area. Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah in a blog post on July 31 said the exam offers not only significant opportunities and practical experience for the Hong Kong legal sector in the Greater Bay Area, but also lays the foundation for deepening legal exchanges.

Guangzhou: GDP up 13.7 percent in the first half of this year

Guangzhou's GDP in the first six months rose 13.7 percent from the previous year to reach 1.31 trillion yuan (US$202.7 billion). The value-added output of the secondary industry soared 16.3 percent, higher than the primary and the tertiary industries. Among the secondary industry, high-tech manufacturing achieved rapid growth, with a 33.4 percent year-on-year increase in added value. The growth can be attributed to an increased output of electronics, including cellphones, which saw year-on-year growth 21.3 times that of the first half of 2020, as well as increased production of servers, electronic computer servers, industrial instruments, and smart televisions. Production of industrial robots and medical appliances increased 37.1 percent and 21 percent respectively.

Shenzhen: Larger school districts is being considered

The Shenzhen municipal people's congress is soliciting public opinions on draft regulations for promoting "large school-district-based" enrollment models and teacher exchange mechanisms as it aims to expand high-quality educational resources.

The city currently assigns each residential area one or two schools during compulsory education, causing a huge price gap among houses, even those just across the street from each other. The "large school district" policy is expected to break the link between houses and enrollment qualifications of top schools, a move to rein in the whopping prices of homes in some popular school districts.

World's largest Legoland resort planned in Dapeng

Shenzhen will build the world's largest Legoland holiday resort in the city's eastern Dapeng New Area, according to media reports. Covering an area of more than 533,000 square meters, it will consist of a Legoland theme park, a Legoland water park, and three Lego-themed hotels, with the total investment expected to reach 4.7 billion yuan (US$727.1 million).

The report said the number of visitors to the resort, which is scheduled to be completed in four years, could reach 2 million in the first year of operation, and the annual figure could double within five years.

Zhuhai: Agreement pledges TCM innovative cooperation

The Guangdong Pilot Free Trade Zone and Shandong Pilot Free Trade Zone signed a cooperation framework agreement that sets the tone for innovative cooperation and development in traditional Chinese medicine between Hengqin New Area in Zhuhai and the city of Jinan in Shandong province.

The cooperation will revolve around five aspects: marketing pharmaceutical preparations invented by TCM hospitals; carving out new routes for promoting TCM overseas; creating collaboration opportunities on TCM research and study; jointly cultivating TCM professionals; and putting key TCM collaboration programs into practice.

Moreover, the cooperation will further explore and experiment with pilot innovative measures to reform the TCM industry. The ultimate goal is to shape a suite of replicable experience in TCM achievements transformation and its international development.

Hengqin New Area will be better placed to serve medical enterprises in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, advancing the standardization, modernization and internalization of TCM.

Huizhou: Officials asked to stabilize property market

Officials in Huizhou attended regulatory talks with housing authorities on July 29 and were asked to stabilize the property market in the wake of rapid increases in local home prices.

Ni Hong, vice-minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said the cities of Huizhou, Yinchuan, Xuzhou, Jinhua, and Quanzhou should enhance property market regulation and monitoring, and keep its development stable and sound.

Officials of the five cities were asked to uphold the principle that "houses are for living in, not for speculation", and not to use real estate as a means of short-term economic stimulus.

Ni also urged local governments to speed up efforts in view of new problems in the real estate market in the first half of the year to promote the stable and healthy development of the market.

Dongguan: Actions being taken to cool property prices

Dongguan on Monday announced measures to continue to rein in soaring property prices, including prohibiting non-real estate companies from bidding for residential land and suspending the sale of commercial flats to self-employed people.

Dongguan was one of the five cities directly asked by central government officials in April to cool their respective overheated residential property markets. The city recorded one of the highest growths in housing prices nationally in 2020.

The latest measures will establish a mechanism to scrutinize capital for bidding for land. Individuals deciding to sell an estate which he or she has owned for less than five years will be subject to a 5 percent value-added tax. The previous rule required one to own a home for at least two years to avoid the VAT.

Banks and financial institutions are required to look into the down payments of buyers when granting housing loans to prevent other commercial loans being used as down payments.

Only a year ago, the city tightened its housing controls by requiring that all non-local residents pay a year of social security before being able to buy their first house, and extending the sales ban from two years to three years after obtaining a house property certificate.

Campaign eyes attracting top talents in seven areas

Dongguan aims to attract top professionals in seven areas — namely, the latest generation of information technology, intelligent manufacturing, digital economy, high-end equipment, new materials, new energy, and biomedicine.

In this year's campaign, the city invited high-end experts to visit on July 29 and 30, after a "one-on-one" roadshow to match these experts with companies looking to hire them.

Attracting talents is high on Dongguan's agenda as the city continues to invest big in its research and development. In 2020, the overall investment in R&D took up 3.06 percent of the city's GDP, a spike of 23 percent compared with that of 2017.

Zhongshan: Aiding Hong Kong, Macao youth entrepreneurs

Zhongshan's municipal government issued document recommendations in a bid to help Hong Kong and Macao youth entrepreneurs establish businesses in the city.

The recommendations strive to promote Zhongshan's youth entrepreneurship platform through professionalizing management of the incubation base, and conducting precision and scientific operational management of services provided by the incubation base. These are to highlight the incubation capabilities of Zhongshan's youth entrepreneurship platform.

The recommendations suggest launching complementary policies, and introducing subsidies and support measures for Hong Kong and Macao youth entrepreneurs. They should be the targeted beneficiaries of the entrepreneurship loan guarantee program — qualified Hong Kong and Macao youth entrepreneurs can apply for bank loans with a ceiling of 5 million yuan (US$774,000) and can enjoy discounted interest rates.

Foshan: Documents issued to seekopinions on capital market

The Foshan municipal bureau of financial services issued documents to solicit opinions on how to enable more companies to broaden direct fundraising channels through utilizing the multilayered capital market.

According to the document, Foshan-registered companies that want to be listed on onshore or offshore stock markets, or want to be listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations and Regional Equity Trading Market, should be brought into the corporate resources data base managed by Foshan city, according to related conditions and procedures.

Companies that encounter problems in the IPO process can give feedback to the bureau and it will conduct coordination work if necessary.

According to the bureau, as of the end of May, 68 Foshan enterprises were listed on the onshore and offshore stock markets, and 79 companies listed on the NEEQ, with a total market capitalization of 1.5 trillion yuan (US$232 billion).