Over recent years, China has been notably prioritising the development of the Greater Bay Area (GBA), an initiative seen as an important national strategy. Overall, the GBA comprises nine Guangdong cities, Hong Kong and Macao. With a combined 2022 population of more than 86 million, the GBA has the highest per capita GDP of any mainland region, while its economy is also considered among the most robust.

Of late, the Taiwan business community has become increasingly aware of the GBA’s potential, with many of the territory’s companies already active in the Pearl River Delta paying particular interest. Indeed, as of last year, a time when many of the pandemicrelated restrictions were finally rescinded, there was a distinct uptick in the number of Taiwanese business people attending GBAfocused seminars or visiting the region for themselves. Many of these meetings and visits were organised by either the relevant Taiwan Affairs Office or one of the many Taiwan business associations active in Guangdong.

Among the most high profile of these events was the Guangzhou-Taiwan Economic and Trade Forum, which took place in Guangzhou in August last year. With Industrial Integration and Bay Area Cohesion as its key theme, the event attracted more than 200 industry, academic and government speakers from both sides of the Strait.

The forum’s focus was primarily on how Taiwan companies can best participate in, as well as benefit from, the ongoing development of the GBA. A number of semiconductor industry players also saw a range of opportunities emerging from the current USChina tech embargos, with the GBA well placed to help make up any shortfall in the availability of essential hightech components.

Overall, though, the event's key objective was to ensure Taiwanese companies were fully aware of the opportunities set to arise from both the GBA and the mainland’s “dual circulation” development strategy. Both of these points were clearly brought home to many of the 4,500 attendees, who included not only representatives of many of the Taiwanese companies active on the mainland, but also members of such influential organisations as the General Chamber of Commerce of Taiwan and the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association.

Following on from the success of the forum, Guangdong's provincial government has introduced and maintained a raft of other measures designed to woo Taiwan's business community. These have included supportive measures for any of the territory's businesses looking to implement technological upgrades locally, facilitating the launch of Taiwan funded research and development institutions and generally broadening market access.