Hi-tech hub Shenzhen faces headwinds as it pushes ahead with innovation ambitions
- Southern city on Wednesday marked 40 years since it became one of China’s pioneering special economic zones
- A lack of public services and a challenging business environment are undermining its goals, analyst says
“Shenzhen will continue to be the standard bearer of reform and opening up and uphold the pioneering spirit of special economic zones,” the city’s Communist Party chief Wang Weizhong was quoted as saying in the official People’s Daily.
“Shenzhen will always remember the … strategic purpose of setting up the special economic zone,” Wang said in a separate opinion piece in the newspaper, referring to the pilot area set up in the 1980s as part of the country’s reform and opening up under Deng Xiaoping.
01:48
China to make Shenzhen into a model city with bolder reforms
Beijing gave the city two new strategic missions last year. In February, a development plan positioned Shenzhen as a key centre in the Greater Bay Area, along with Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Macau.