In 2017, the total GDP contributed by all 11 cities in the Greater Bay Area stood at 11.7 trillion yuan (US$1.7 trillion). According to the latest estimate by real estate consulting firm CBRE, the Greater Bay Area will become the world’s top bay area by 2020, when its regional GDP will surpass that of all other bay areas.

The Greater Bay Area is not only economically large, but also has a number of dominant industries with distinct competitiveness globally or nationally.

In 2017, among the nine mainland cities in the Pearl River Delta, Shenzhen had the largest manufacturing sector with the industrial added value of 808.8 billion yuan; followed by Foshan and Guangzhou with 493.0 billion yuan and 439.5 yuan, respectively. More than 80% of the manufacturing industry in Guangdong Province is concentrated in the nine cities of the Pearl River Delta.

Apart from the obvious advantages in many areas of the manufacturing industry, the Greater Bay Area has a very prosperous tourism industry characterized by large market size and large numbers of visitors, which illustrates its bright prospects. Taking the 11 cities of the Greater Bay Area as a whole, they saw more than 400 million domestic and foreign tourists in 2016, with overall tourism revenue reaching 1.06 trillion yuan.

In addition to the manufacturing and tourism industries, the Greater Bay Area leads the nation in insurance, finance, technology, real estate development, automobile and home appliance manufacturing, with some of these industries even outpacing their global counterparts.

In general, the industries in the Greater Bay Area with the largest number of Fortune 500 and Forbes Global 2000 companies and superior overall strength, are real estate development, finance and insurance, as well as technology and the Internet.

Regarding real estate development, Hong Kong enterprises had a head start and have accumulated a lot of experience. Also, a number of real estate enterprises in Guangzhou and Shenzhen have performed well nationwide due to the rise of the mainland market.

Finance and insurance are Hong Kong’s traditional areas of strength. According to The Global Financial Centre’s Index (GFCI) released by Z/Yen Group, a British think tank, Hong Kong was the world’s fourth largest international financial center, and Shenzhen ranked 22nd, in 2017. Being the hub of a number of strong financial and insurance enterprises, securities trading in Hong Kong and Shenzhen is also at the forefront globally in terms of market value.

As the representatives of the region in science and technology, the Internet, computers, communications and other electronic equipment manufacturing, enterprises in Shenzhen not only defeat their domestic counterparts, but are also leading the world in many areas. Guangdong has long been a key manufacturing base for the world’s computers and communications equipment as well as other electronics.