Photovoltaic industry leads GBA to sustainable future
Lee Shing-put, a Hong Kong deputy to the nation’s top legislature, foresaw the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area becoming a sterling example of a new-energy powerhouse, as the nation’s photovoltaic industry takes on robust and high-quality development.
Lee, who chairs ◆inyi Energy Holdings — a Hong Kong-listed company operating nearly 40 solar farms on the Chinese mainland — put forward seven motions, including those aiming at developing the photovoltaic trade, during the annual gathering of the National People’s Congress, which began on Tuesday in Beijing.
The entrepreneur said that although China’s photovoltaic industry hosts half the world’s installed photovoltaic power generation capacity, over 80 percent of the world’s manufacturing capacity, and the world’s most patent applications, it still faces a series of challenges, including disorderly competition and overcapacity.
To maintain the industry’s global competitiveness, Lee suggested adhering to supply-side reform to avoid excessive internal competition, fostering collaborative relationships among domestic enterprises in the industrial chain, encouraging technological innovation to boost productivity, and urging more enterprises to go global and integrate into international industrial and supply chains.
Lee said the GBA offers immense potential for the photovoltaic industry, provided it has sufficient industrial space and supporting facilities.
Expressing confidence in the GBA, Lee said Hong Kong can contribute greatly with its high-end professional services.
To enhance the 11-city cluster’s pivotal role in the nation’s overall highquality development, Lee suggested rolling out more measures to coordinate the GBA development, including enhancing interregional exchanges and deepening the Hong Kong-Shenzhen collaboration.
He said the two core cities in the region, with their distinct advantages, can join forces to become “the world’s No 1 twin cities”.
In particular, Lee proposed establishing a task force to carry out a joint study on both cities’ urban planning over the next 25 years, enabling forward-looking collaboration aimed at addressing long-term challenges such as climate change, technology revolution and geopolitical tensions.