The Greater Bay Area (GBA) accounted for a ninth of China’s entire gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023, according to official data cited in the China Daily.
Figures show that total economic output of the region – which includes Macao, Hong Kong, the tech hub of Shenzhen, the provincial capital Guangzhou and several other cities in Guangdong – reached 14 trillion yuan (US$1.97 trillion) last year.
Zhu Wei, executive deputy director of the GBA office in Guangdong, told the China Daily that the area had witnessed an increase of 3.2 trillion yuan in GDP since 2018.
[See more: Here’s how to get to some of the Greater Bay Area cities from Macao]
He said the GBA had made notable advances in technological innovation, intercity transport and market integration.
According to the China Daily, the throughput of the GBA’s airport cluster now exceeds 280 million passengers a year, while the region’s ports annually handle over 85 million TEUs (a unit of measurement normally applied to shipping containers).
Forecasters at Hong Kong Polytechnic University meanwhile estimate that close to 130 million international visitors will enter the GBA in 2024, marking a full recovery to pre-pandemic levels.
