Shenzhen’s success to create opportunities

a limited number of universities. It has gradually formed a market-oriented, enterprises-centered and industrialization-driven innovation model,” Tan said.

How to retain its advantages in application innovation and extend them to the whole ecological chain is of high importance, he said.

The statement also urged Shenzhen to seize important opportunities in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

In February, the central government unveiled the blueprint for the development of the Greater Bay Area, which covers nine cities in southern Guangdong province — Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing — as well as Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macao are positioned as core cities.

“Shenzhen’s strong innovation capability can create a spillover effect, promoting coordinated development in the region. It can radiate its energy to other areas,” Guo said.

But to achieve that, the city needs to address several challenges, he said.

“A big problem for Shenzhen is that land is expensive, which is not good for retaining enterprises. Therefore, the first issue that needs to be tackled is how to deal with its high costs and high housing prices,” said Guo.

“The city should also further innovate its governance to enhance efficiency and facilitate the flow of goods, capital, information and talent. Moreover, greater efforts should be made to attract talent to the city, especially international technology talent.”