Guangzhou City, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, has been supporting young entrepreneurs from Macao with favorable policies, greatly enhancing the integrated development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
As one of the key areas for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao cooperation, Guangzhou's Nansha District has attracted more than 3,000 Hong Kong and Macao enterprises, including more than 450 Hong Kong and Macao youth entrepreneurship teams, with its employment subsidies, living subsidies, transportation subsidies, tax incentives and many other supportive policies.
Lei Wai Kit, founder and managing director of SEMSORRISO, a company mainly engaged in the production and retail of cultural and creative products, is one of the beneficiaries.
With a passion for traditional Chinese culture, the young man from the Macao Special Administrative Region has designed many Macao-inspired products for the mainland market.
"We have brought some clothes with Macao elements, and this is Macao graffiti. This one is a map of Macao, with silhouettes of Macao's buildings and streets, as well as the four tourist routes we designed," he said at a recent music festival in Guangzhou.
"I believe I serve as a bridge between Macao and the mainland, blending the two distinct cultures with same roots -- the Macao culture and the Cantonese culture. I found that Macao was the first place in China to introduce coffee, and Jingdezhen porcelain was exported through Macao during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Inspired by this history, we created a coffee cup with Macao elements," said the entrepreneur.
Lei Wai Kit, 27, returned to Macao after graduating from Sun Yat-sen University to start a business, but he moved his company to Nansha in less than a year for its better business environment and market potential.
"Nansha provides strong support for Hong Kong and Macao youth who wish to integrate with the Greater Bay Area. This includes employment subsidies, living subsidies, transportation subsidies, and tax incentives for businesses. Additionally, there are numerous publicity opportunities to help those startups grow," he said.
In 2022, China's State Council issued an overall plan for Nansha District, which aims to build Nansha into an important catalyst for Hong Kong and Macao to better integrate into overall national development.
Established in 2022, the OVO Plus Incubation Center in Nansha now houses over 100 startup enterprises, with Macao accounting for one in five such startups.
"The Nansha District Government plans to establish the OVO Plus Incubation Center as a hub for young people from Hong Kong and Macao to work, start businesses, live and innovate happily. We are assisting Macao youth in settling here, facilitating business registration, providing corporate training, and offering investment and financing opportunities," said Rainbow Lei, president of the Macao International Industrial Technology Development Association.
For Macao youth like Lei Wai Kit, Nansha serves as a gateway not only to the Greater Bay Area but also to the entire mainland, promising them a brighter future.
Young Macao entrepreneurs benefit from Guangzhou's startup support policies
