I was in Macau on September 14, 2017, speaking in a conference about the soft infrastructure of China's Belt & Road Initiative. I highlighted that the challenges as well as the opportunities might well be tested in China's 2017 Bay Area development. I suggested how the Bay Area entrepreneurs and professionals could deploy the Bay Area business models and action experience to capitalize on the Belt & Road business opportunities.
China's Bay Area covers nine cities in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. In terms of area, population, freight and passenger turnover, number of the World's 100 best universities, China's Bay area is the largest among the senior bay areas in Tokyo, New York and San Francisco. And in terms of per-capita GDP/US$10000, tertiary industry share/% and number of Forbes 500 best companies, China's 2017 Bay area mission is the lowest among them.
What differentiates China' s Bay Area from other bay areas is that although it is within the same country China, there are three civil, political, economic, social and cultural systems, three languages ie Chinese, English and Portuguese, and three legal systems. What is common among them is that the actors are entrepreneurial and professional. They also share the same can-do mindset and work culture.
The conference I attended was one of the Bay Area collaborative developments to identify the structural obstacles and to eliminate them. The business model practised and the experience learned can enhance strategic partners' capacity to apply them in the Belt & Road projects. I believe actors who think big and act bold in the Bay Area (and those who partner with or invest in them) can scale their businesses to any imaginable levels!