How China's Pearl River Delta went from the world's factory floor to a hi-tech hub
Peter Wong says the move towards higher-tech industries will benefit Hong Kong, cementing its role as a key knowledge hub
The Pearl River Delta was once dubbed the "factory floor" of the world. These days, however, it is more accurate to call the area "Silicon Delta" - a hi-tech and innovation hub for the world's second-largest economy.
For the past 35 years, Guangdong has been at the forefront of China's economic development and reform efforts. Since the late 1970s, when China began to open its economy to international trade and investment, the cities around the mouth of the Pearl River - Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Dongguan and others - have transformed themselves into industrial powerhouses producing garments, toys, electronics and textiles for the world.
Now, with wages rising and industrial-sector growth slowing, Guangdong province and the delta are reinventing themselves one more time, and are once again at the forefront of China's economic reform efforts - moving up the economic ladder by focusing more on advanced manufacturing, hi-tech and service industries.
With wages rising and industrial-sector growth slowing, Guangdong and the delta are reinventing themselves one more time, and are once again at the forefront of China's economic reform efforts
Over the course of little more than a decade, the area has become home to some of the world's largest hi-tech companies. Huawei and ZTE, which make telecoms equipment and employ tens of thousands, are headquartered in Shenzhen. Lenovo, TCL, BYD, Apple, IBM, Philips, BGI, Lucent and Olympus have manufacturing bases and research and design capabilities in the region. Guangdong's economy has swelled, and is now larger than Indonesia's.
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