Du Manchang, associate professor of Zhuhai Party School, told Zhuhai Special Zone Daily that the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge significantly shortens travel time, which will not only attract more tourists to Zhuhai but also boost the cooperation between the city and Hong Kong and Macao.

It now only takes 30 minutes to drive from Zhuhai to Hong Kong, compared with three hours of driving before. A new customs clearance procedure also saves time for cargo flow, according to the local government.

The city has participated in the development of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macao Technological Innovation Corridor. It has built multiple innovative platforms, such as the Guangdong-Macao Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Industrial Park, the Hengqin Science City and the Hengqin-Macao Youth Entrepreneurship Valley.

Zhuhai encourages regional exchanges of tech talent, research fund and commercialization of research results, on the way to building itself into an international scientific innovation center, according to the local government.

The city is also developing provincial or national-level laboratories, such as a southern maritime science and engineering laboratory. It has cooperated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to build an intelligent computing center to innovate chips' design and inspection that will back artificial intelligence development.

Emerging industries, such as information technology, advanced equipment manufacturing, biological medicine, new energy vehicles, digital innovation and new materials, are also highlighted.