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Thirty enterprises, including 10 Fortune 500 companies, unveiled plans to invest US$16.5 billion in 30 projects in Qianhai at the 2022 Qianhai Global Investment Promotion Conference held yesterday.

The 10 Fortune 500 companies include SINOPEC, China National Offshore Oil Corp., Standard Chartered and PowerChina. Among the 20 other firms are 10 Hong Kong-funded companies and 10 industry-leading firms on the mainland.

Zhong Weiyi, managing director of the Shenzhen branch of Collier, a U.S.-headquartered leading global real estate services and investment management company, said the company will utilize Qianhai’s advantage as a professional service hub to further tap into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).

“Qianhai’s business environment is top-notch both in China and the world. Its development prospect and all kinds of favorable industrial and taxation policies made us believe that our business layout here is highly significant to us,” he said.

Zhang Wei, chairman of Senton Energy Co. Ltd., said Qianhai’s plan to build the area into a natural gas trade hub is the main reason for the Shandong-based company to invest in the area.

“We are registering a wholly owned subsidiary in Qianhai to serve the domestic and international natural gas trade. It will start operation early next year,” Zhang said.

Also at the conference, the Qianhai Global Service Providers (QGSP) program was unveiled. The program aims to introduce and cultivate China’s top 20 and the global top 50 service providers in eight fields — modern finance services, trade and logistics, information services, sci-tech services, commercial services, public services, shipping services, and cultural and creative services.

Each year, Qianhai will allocate no less than 1 billion yuan (US$138 million) and provide no less than 200,000 square meters of industrial space to support the industries, as per the program. The goal is to introduce and foster over 300 global service providers by 2025. The total added value of the service industry in the area will exceed 100 billion yuan by then. Qianhai strives to become the core driving force for the development of the GBA’s modern service industry and an important production service center in Asia Pacific.

Meanwhile, Qianhai also aims to become the center for venture capital, natural gas trade, cross-border e-commerce, and tax-related services, according to the conference.

Zeng Pai, director of Qianhai Authority, said at the conference that Qianhai focuses on promoting high-quality development through comprehensive reform and opening up.

Huang Xiaopeng, executive vice director of Qianhai Authority, said Qianhai’s business climate witnessed major improvements in the past year in Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation, innovation vitality and urban environment.

From January to September this year, 27,500 firms were newly registered in Qianhai. The area’s GDP topped 130.5 billion yuan during the period, rising 3.3% year on year. The actual use of foreign capital was US$4.52 billion, up 16.9% year on year, representing 54.1% of that of Shenzhen, 20.9% of Guangdong and 2.9% of China.