Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin — Cross-Border Diversification Beyond Gaming

Macao's economy has long depended heavily on gaming and tourism, a concentration exposed as a vulnerability during the pandemic. In 2021 the governments of Guangdong Province and the Macao Special Administrative Region jointly established the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone on Hengqin island, a 106.46 km² district of Zhuhai adjoining Macao, applying a distinct legal and fiscal regime designed to let Macao residents and companies operate on mainland land under partially Macao-aligned rules.
The Zone's strategy channels growth into four target sectors — technology and advanced manufacturing, traditional Chinese medicine and life sciences, cultural tourism and exhibitions, and financial technology — through matching grants (up to 800,000 yuan per project, worth 50% of funding already secured from the Macao government) and dedicated innovation infrastructure, including 27 national and provincial technology platforms and 4 branch laboratories of Macao university national key labs.
By the end of October 2024 the Zone's industrial park hosted 239 registered enterprises, 86 of them Macao-funded, while more broadly the Zone's 'four new' industries encompassed 31,506 operating businesses generating 21.6 billion yuan (about US$2.96 billion) in added value in the first three quarters of 2024 — 57.8% of the Zone's total GDP. The Zone's 2025–2029 development plan sets forward targets of raising these sectors to 65% of GDP, tripling Macao-funded industry output to 9 billion yuan, growing high-tech companies from 238 to 350, and more than doubling high-calibre talent to 20,000.
The achieved 2024 figures are corroborated by both an official Guangdong provincial government release and independent Macau media, but the more ambitious 2029 goals are forward targets, not yet realised results, and the Zone's bespoke 'one zone, two systems' governance is tightly bound to China's unique constitutional arrangement with Macao, limiting how directly the model could be replicated in other jurisdictions.

Read the full analysis: https://en.gdfao.gov.cn/2024-12/20/c_1057820.htm