Wu Xiaoqiu, former Vice President of Renmin University of China and President of the National Academy of Finance, recently pointed out in his speech that science and innovation finance is the focus of financial development in the Greater Bay Area. With the development of China's economy and the continuous upgrading of the industrial structure, the past development model of relying on factor input and scale expansion has become unsustainable. The model of China's economic growth must be built on the basis of scientific and technological progress and innovation-driven, and only an industrial system dominated by high-tech enterprises can be competitive.

Renmin University of China Shenzhen Alumni Forum and the first Greater Bay Area Financial Forum was held recently in Shenzhen. At the forum site, scientific and technological innovation and financial cooperation became the focus of many experts' hot discussions.

Wu Xiaoqiu said that China's economy is in a critical stage of transformation and upgrading, and needs to shift from investment-driven to innovation-driven. This transformation has put forward new challenges and requirements for the financial system. Finance should better serve the real economy, especially high-tech enterprises and emerging industries. High-tech enterprises and emerging industries have a high degree of uncertainty and risk, and require effective support from finance through risk diversification and portfolio investment. Therefore, financial structure reform has become an important element in promoting the high-quality development of China's economy.

Wu emphasized that the core of financial structural reform is marketization, which means giving full play to the market's decisive role in resource allocation, promoting diversification of the financial industry and diversification of functions, and meeting the diversified needs for finance at all levels of society. Among them, the development of the capital market is particularly crucial, as the capital market can provide more flexible and effective funding channels for high-tech enterprises and emerging industries through debt financing and equity financing. At the same time, the capital market can also provide residents with more diversified and better wealth management products and services.

In addition to marketization, the reform of the financial structure needs to rely on the support of science and technology, the rule of law and internationalization. Science and technology can improve financial efficiency and universality, reduce financial costs and risks, and solve credit problems and information asymmetry. The rule of law can guarantee financial stability and security, regulate financial behavior and market order, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of financial consumers and investors. Internationalization can expand financial openness and cooperation, enhance financial competitiveness and influence, and improve the discourse and participation of finance in global governance. Financial structural reform is an important guarantee and driving force for China's economic transformation and upgrading, which needs to be comprehensively deepened in terms of marketization, technologization, legalization and internationalization.

Deng Ge, President of Guoxin Securities, introduced that Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay Area, as one of the most open and financially dynamic regions in China, is moving towards the goal of building an international first-class Bay Area. Compared with the other four major bay areas in the world, the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area is characterized by labor-intensive and resource-rich characteristics, and it is uniquely situated and has obvious advantages of latecomers. At present, technological innovation and industrial development have become an important source of economic development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, where rich innovation resources have been accumulated and remarkable innovation results have been achieved.

Relevant data show that in 2022, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area has laid out 10 Guangdong Province laboratories, 30 national key laboratories, as well as 20 joint laboratories in Hong Kong and Macao, gathering a large number of domestic and foreign academician-scientists of international top level, as well as Hong Kong and Macao scientific research institutions.In 2022, the number of high-tech enterprises in Guangdong reached 69,000, which is more than doubled in five years, and the vast majority of which are The vast majority of them are concentrated in the Greater Bay Area.

Nowadays, building an international science and technology innovation center with global influence has also become one of the important goals proposed in the Outline of the Plan for the Development of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area. According to the Global Innovation Index report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the "Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou Innovation Cluster" will be ranked second in the Global Innovation Index for three consecutive years in 2020, 2021 and 2022. The special report "Sharing Innovation - Accelerating Toward the World's Top Bay Area of Science and Innovation" released by China (Shenzhen) Institute of Comprehensive Development Research predicts that by 2030, the scale of strategic emerging industries in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area will reach the level of trillions of U.S. dollars, the value-added of advanced manufacturing industry will be more than 4 trillion yuan, and the scale of R & D investment will reach the level of one hundred billion U.S. dollars, which will be stronger than the San Francisco Bay Area. The intensity will be comparable to that of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Wang Hongzhang, former chairman of China Construction Bank, said that the Greater Bay Area is relatively deep in science and technology, and is a leader in the world. In the future, the financial system of science and technology innovation can be improved to increase the momentum of supporting innovation-driven development, such as creating a pilot area for science and technology innovation and financial reform in the Greater Bay Area, through which the results achieved will be promoted in time in the Bay Area and even the whole country. Explore the reform of state-owned venture capital institutions in terms of follow-up investment, performance evaluation and constraint mechanisms to promote their long-term investment behavior. The Greater Bay Area should continue to support financial institutions to set up specialized institutions for science and technology finance, innovate science and technology financial products, and improve public platforms for financial support of technological innovation. It is also necessary to establish a guidance fund for the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements in the Greater Bay Area, to pry more social capital into the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements and the incubation of scientific and technological enterprises, and to set up a guarantee fund for scientific and technological financing in the Greater Bay Area, so that enterprises will be more actively involved in scientific and technological innovation and scientific and technological development support.

In addition, according to Wang Hongzhang, the Greater Bay Area can also consider innovating relevant cross-border financial products, exploring pledge loans for cross-border intellectual property rights, and making good use of cross-border capital pools. More cross-border RMB investment and loan funds should be set up in the region, and enterprises in the Greater Bay Area should be actively supported to integrate domestic and foreign innovation resources through equity investment, mergers and acquisitions.