The 1st Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area & ‘Belt and Road’ Construction Forum was hosted on August 30, 2018 (Beijing time). This forum was jointly hosted by Guangdong Provincial Committee of the China Zhigong Party and Overseas Friendship Association of China Zhigong Party Central Committee； organized by Guangzhou Municipal Committee of the China Zhigong Party and co-organized by Association of China Zhigong Party in Hong Kong, Association of China Zhigong Party in Macao, EU-China Joint Innovation Center and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Institute of Supply Chain.

Yan Xiaopei, Member of the Standing Committee of the 13th CPPCC National Committee, Full-time Vice Chairman of the Central China Zhi Gong Party and Deputy Director of the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs Committee of the CPPCC National Committee, Derek Vaughan, MEP of European Parliament and Vice President of EU-China Friendship Group, Huang Wu, Vice Chairman of Guangdong CPPCC and Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of Zhi Gong Party, Gai Lin, Secretary General of EU-China Friendship Group of European Parliament, Zhou Ruixue, Director of EU-China Joint Innovation Center, Peter Huang, Duputy Director of EU-China Joint Innovation Center, and Shasha Zhang, Director of European Affairs Center of EU-China Joint Innovation Center attended the forum.

This Forum invited guests from home and abroad to discuss the core issues of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area & ‘Belt and Road’ overall layout of construction under the theme of ‘Construction of the Greater Bay Area and Free Trade Port’. Yan Xiaopei, Member of the Standing Committee of the 13th CPPCC National Committee and Vice Chairman of the Central China Zhi Gong Party delivered the opening speech. Derek Vaughan, MEP of European Parliament and Vice President of EU-China Friendship Group delivered a keynote speech entitled ‘Belt and Road’ Cooperation between EU and China to explore the cooperation opportunities of EU-China innovation. Whereafter, several guests delivered keynote speeches, including Yu Miaojie, Vice President of National Development Research Institute, Peking University, Prof. Wu Enbai, Associate Vice President of HKUST and President of Fok Ying Tung Research Institute, Prof. Wang Zhiping, Assistant to the Headmaster and Director of the Institute of Comprehensive Studies, Sapporo university (Japan), Qiu Guoxuan, Executive Director of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Institute of Supply Chain and Professor of Shanghai Maritime University, and Xiao Geng, President of Hong Kong International Finance Association and Professor of HSBC Business School of Peking University.

On the forum, Peter Huang, Duputy Director of EU-China Joint Innovation Center introduced the project of EU-China Joint Innovation Base. The objective of EU-China Joint Innovation Base is to promote the collaborative innovation development between the EU and China. As the major platform for innovation exchanges and cooperation of both sides, the base is also a demonstration project for Sino-EU innovation cooperation under the “Belt and Road”Initiative. The base takes EU Innovation Institution Headquarters as its core, consider joint innovation and joint venture start-up as its primary mode. With supports from high-quality innovation resources in both parties, the EU-China Joint Innovation Base aims to establish a practice base for international joint innovation and joint venture start-ups by providing the sophisticated innovative services and become the preferred platform for technological innovation exchanges and cooperation between EU and China.

 At the end of the forum, EU-China Joint Innovation Center signed a cooperation agreement with Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Institute of Supply Chain to promote the EU Innovation resources to contribute to the construction of the Bay area in the future.