China News Service, Shenzhen, September 5th. Title: Looking at China's super projects from the "outside": continuing to release dividends and provide reference for the Asia-Pacific
China News Service reporter Cheng Jingwei
On the coast of the South China Sea and at the mouth of the Pearl River, a number of super projects span the east and west sides, from the opened Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor to the Shiziyang Corridor under construction.
The Asia-Pacific Media High-end Forum opened in Shenzhen on the 5th. On the eve of the event, a group of foreign media guests boarded the Blue Dolphin Island of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. "The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge embodies important technological levels." said Felix Paz, president of the Peruvian Andes News Agency.
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is 55 kilometers long and is the longest cross-sea bridge in the world. The completion and opening of the bridge to traffic has enabled the land connection between Zhuhai, Macau and Hong Kong, and improved the traffic efficiency between Hong Kong and the western Pearl River Delta region.
According to statistics from the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Authority, from the opening of the bridge in October 2018 to August this year, the total number of passengers passing through the bridge (passengers from the Zhuhai-Hong Kong and Hong Kong-Macao directions) was approximately 130 million, and the total two-way traffic volume exceeded 18.6 million vehicles.
Wang Jie, director of the Zhuhai Trade Service Center, told foreign media guests that before the bridge opened to traffic, it took more than an hour to get to Hong Kong from Zhuhai by boat and three or four hours by car. Now, it takes 45 minutes to reach Hong Kong with just one step of the accelerator. The "one-hour living circle" in the Greater Bay Area is within reach every day.
Rather than saying that the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is a "project of the century", Wang Jie feels that it is more like a warm "life connection line". She and her colleagues ensure that various goods can circulate quickly between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao through this bridge every day.
From the opening of the bridge to the end of July this year, the total import and export value through the Zhuhai Highway Port of the bridge has exceeded 1.5 trillion yuan (RMB, the same below); the average monthly import and export value has jumped from 4.1 billion yuan in the early days of opening to 34 billion yuan in the first seven months, an increase of more than 7 times.
Cross-border e-commerce is one of the most dynamic business formats in the new economic and trade channel of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. From January to July this year, an average of nearly 3 million cross-border e-commerce packages were sent to more than 200 countries and regions around the world via the bridge every day.
John Wallace, executive director of the Australian Asia-Pacific News Center, believes that the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge promotes regional integration and development, has far-reaching economic significance, and is a highly valuable initiative.
Thanks to the continuous deepening of the "hard connectivity" of infrastructure and the "soft connectivity" of rules and mechanisms in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, more than 30,000 Macau residents and more than 7,600 Macau-funded enterprises now live, work, invest and operate in Hengqin.
Lin Zixiang, executive director of the Hengqin Pien Tze Huang Museum, is a Macau young man who has taken root in Hengqin and started his own business. The traditional Chinese medicine products he sells have recently successfully obtained registration batch numbers in France. Relying on the "Macao registration + Hengqin production" model, he combined Macao's international advantages with Hengqin's industrial space, cost and policy advantages to promote the "going overseas" of traditional Chinese medicine.
The Shenzhen-Zhongshan Channel starts from Shenzhen in the east and reaches Zhongshan in the west. It is a super-large cross-sea project integrating "bridges, islands, tunnels and underwater interconnections". This passage brings new opportunities for urban development and rural revitalization on the west bank of the Pearl River.
In Yakou Village, Nanlang Street, Zhongshan City, foreign media guests rode a battery car through the vast green rice fields. On the edge of the rice fields, cafes are scattered one after another. With the opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Passage, the village has quickly become popular with its rural beauty, coffee culture and food. Last year, it received more than 6.3 million tourists.
"After the transportation 'context' is opened, it will significantly boost economic and cultural activities." Luo Yiwei, editor-in-chief of Malaysia's "Nanyang Siang Pau" said that her hometown of Kedah, Malaysia also has large rice fields. Yakou Village's experience in improving the layout of cultural tourism entrepreneurship and attracting young people to return home to start businesses is of great reference value.
