Hong Kong: SAR reclaims position as leading global IPO venue

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has reclaimed its position as one the world’s leading initial public offering markets, ranking fourth in a seasonal review by global accounting firm KPMG.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is listed as the fourth-largest international stock market in terms of IPO funds raised.

The SAR’s resurgence was primarily driven by the listing of Midea Group, a major Chinese mainland home appliance manufacturer that raised more than HK$30 billion ($3.86 billion) when it went public last month — the city’s largest since 2022.

KPMG said Hong Kong saw a recovery in IPO activities in the third quarter of this year and from January to September, the city’s 45 listings raised a total of HK$55.6 billion.  

Macao: National Day Golden Week draws nearly 1m visitors

About 1 million travelers visited the Macao Special Administrative Region during this year’s National Day Golden Week from Oct 1 to 7, with the average daily number of visitors surpassing 140,000 — the highest the city has ever recorded.

According to the Macao SAR Government Tourism Office, about 83 percent of the visitors were from the Chinese mainland, with 12 percent from Hong Kong and nearly 4 percent from overseas.

The weeklong holiday also set a new record in the single-day arrivals. The peak came on Oct 3 with 174,000 inbound tourists — the highest daily traveler volume ever recorded during the holidays.

Guangzhou: Provincial capital holds HR innovation competition

The first Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Human Resources Service Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, held in Guangzhou on Oct 11, attracted more than 1,000 participants in charge of human resource services in government departments, institutions and private enterprises.

The contest highlighted the Guangdong provincial capital’s bid to be at the forefront in the country’s human resource services. The 11-city Greater Bay Area has more than 15,000 human resources service agencies, accounting for a quarter of such institutions nationwide, with about 2,700 of them based in Guangzhou.

Shenzhen: HK tech institute opens new subsidiary in city

The Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute launched its new arm in Shenzhen on Oct 9, marking a significant step in cross-border innovation collaboration.

The subsidiary is located in the Shenzhen part of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone — a 3.9-square-kilometer area straddling the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and its adjacent city in Guangdong province.

The HKSAR government-backed Hong Kong tech institute and Shenzhen Smart City Technology Development Group conducted their first cross-border intelligent connected autonomous driving test in the cooperation zone in June.

Zhuhai: Wind-power hydrogen plant starts operations

Asia’s first industrial-scale offshore wind-power hydrogen production plant has begun operations in Zhuhai’s Wanshan district.

The project utilizes a 3-megawatt turbine capable of generating about 10 million kilowatt-hours annually.

The facility fills a technological gap in marine wind-power hydrogen production engineering in China and other regions of Asia, providing valuable technical reference and experience for future domestic and international marine energy hydrogen production.

Foshan: Smart pharmaceutical supply chain park launched

A 1.5-billion-yuan ($211-million) smart supply chain industrial park for southern China’s pharmaceutical industry was launched in Foshan’s Sanshui district on Oct 8.

The annual output of the project, with a fixed-asset investment of 750 million yuan, is expected to reach 560 million yuan when it’s fully operational.

The park has a medical device assembly production and distribution center, a pharmaceutical cold chain production service warehouse, a health product cold chain warehouse, and a supply chain distribution center.

Huizhou: Dedicated service window to benefit HK, Macao people

A dedicated service window for residents of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions was launched in Huizhou on Oct 10, offering more than 300 offline services relating to their studies, work and lives in the city. It will have self-registration kiosks of iAM Smart — a digital services platform used in Hong Kong — and cross-border public services self-service machines in December.

Huizhou has issued guidelines for Hong Kong and Macao residents in Huizhou. The guidelines, available in print and digital formats, provide more than 40 directions concerning policies and public services in five chapters covering areas like education, employment, and entrepreneurship, to facilitate their staying in Huizhou.

Dongguan: Unmanned drones boost logistics efficiency

Supervised by Customs officials, an unmanned drone carrying 2,640 electrical connectors took off from Dongguan on Oct 9 and reached Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport in 38 minutes. The cargo was loaded onto a cargo plane bound for Vietnam.

The drone flights mark Dongguan’s breakthrough in leveraging the low-altitude economy, which refers to industries operating in airspace below 1,000 meters.

According to Lu Qingfeng, a Dongguan company representative, it used to take up to five hours for high-value, low-volume electronic products to be transported to Shenzhen. Using low-altitude transportation has reduced that to 38 minutes.

Zhongshan: Festival marks diplomatic ties between China, France

The 2024 Zhongshan-France Festival opened on Oct 12 to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and France. The highlights included a monthlong exhibition titled The Charm of Sports, displaying the colored pencil artworks of French artist Caroline Peron.

The festival forms part of Zhongshan’s efforts to enhance its global footprint following two previous editions that focused on Germany and Spain with music and photographic exhibitions. It also serves as a platform for business exchanges.

Jiangmen: Large subterranean lab almost completed

Construction work on the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory is nearing the end, with the completion of a massive sphere inside its core detection equipment. Located about 700 meters underground, the detector is expected to start collecting data from August next year, and will have an operational lifespan of around 30 years.

Led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Guangdong province, the facility is a global effort involving 750 researchers from 74 institutions from 17 countries and regions. It aims to unravel the mysteries of neutrinos — particles that the international scientific community has a limited understanding of because of their light mass and speed approaching that of light.

Zhaoqing: Cargo express trains to Chengdu launched

The X8778 rapid freight train left Zhaoqing Railway Station on Oct 11 for Chengdu Chengxiang Station in Sichuan province.

Following Shenzhen, Zhaoqing is among the second batch of cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to start rapid railway cargo transportation services to the Chengdu-Chongqing region. The extension is set to deepen links between the Greater Bay Area and cities in Southwest China.

Compared with traditional freight trains, rapid cargo trains have increased their speed from 80 kilometers per hour to 120 kilometers per hour, cutting total transportation time by one-third to about 60 hours. The trains will operate daily, with each comprising at least 30 carriages, while capacity can be raised, depending on demand.