The Dream Factory of China

Source :Shenzhen Daily

More and more Hong Kong entrepreneurs and Hong Kong-invested companies have been attracted to the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone for development since the zone was established 11 years ago as the business environment in Qianhai has been continuously improving.

Currently, Qianhai has been home to about 11,500 Hong Kong-invested companies. The registered capital of Hong Kong-invested companies in Qianhai reached 1.28 trillion yuan (US$196.86 billion) and the actually utilized Hong Kong capital accounts for 92.4 percent of Qianhai’s total actual utilization of overseas capital.

“Registering a company in Qianhai can be completed in one day and the Hong Kong entrepreneurs can get their company’s bank accounts opened without travelling to Shenzhen,” said Wang Kai, president of the Greater Bay Area Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (YIE), a startup incubation platform at the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneur Hub (E-hub).

According to Chu Kejun, director of the Qianhai Registration Department of the Enterprise Registration Bureau of the Shenzhen Market Supervision Bureau, the bureau has joined hands with the Qianhai authority to launch a series of measures to streamline the business registration procedures in Qianhai. An exclusive service window for the registration of Hong Kong companies has also been opened in Qianhai.

“When the service window receives a registration application from a Hong Kong-invested company, our bureau will review and approve the application in one hour. Dozens of Hong Kong companies benefit from this service every week,” Chu said.

Since the establishment of YIE in 2019, it has introduced 56 startups from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to Qianhai.

Costume designer Ruby Fang moved his startup company to YIE in May this year. She said she felt a strong entrepreneurial atmosphere at YIE and E-hub and made friends with many young elites in Qianhai. “Corporate services are convenient in Qianhai as the entrepreneurial park is close to the Qianhai electronic one-stop service center. In addition, the center will specially designate a staff member to process my service applications and provide guidance on issues I don’t know much about,” Fang said.

The favorable policies of Qianhai and the area’s continuously deepening partnership with Hong Kong also attracted some of the established Hong Kong companies to Qianhai.

The Ho & Partners Architects Engineers & Development Consultants Ltd relocated its Shenzhen office to the Qianhai Shimao Tower in November 2019.

Wang Long, a board director and design director of the company said Qianhai has provided many supportive policies to companies in the professional service industry.

“Hong Kong talents and companies can enjoy a 15-percent personal and corporate tax rate, respectively. In addition, there are many other subsidies covering Hong Kong talents’ work and life in Qianhai, such as low-rent housing and transportation allowance.”

“As Qianhai continues to lower its thresholds for the cross-border practicing of Hong Kong professional on the Chinese mainland, we believe more and more construction professionals from Hong Kong will be attracted to Qianhai, which is conducive to promoting the interconnection and exchange between Shenzhen and Hong Kong in the field of architecture design,” Wang said.

As of June, 245 startup teams have been incubated at the E-hub. The Qianhai authority has allocated more than 90 million yuan in supportive subsidies to young people from Hong Kong and Macao, and has accredited 1,434 overseas high-end talents and urgently-needed talents. Among them, over 50 percent are from Hong Kong.