Business Environment and Efficiency of Firms in the Great Bay Area: Evidence from Regional Comparison
Abstract: Business environment is important for an enterprise. The quality of a regional business environment directly affects the development of its existing enterprises and its attractiveness to potential enterprises. It is also related to the development benefits and growth potential of that region, especially for major areas, where the construction of metropolitan circle is in full swing. Since the outline development plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area came out, this area has attracted much attention. While at the same time, the north, west and east parts of Guangdong, stimulated by GBA, cannot be ignored either. This report takes listed companies as a sample and focuses on the business environment and efficiency of the whole region, including Guangdong province, Hong Kong, and Macao. Through horizontal and vertical comparisons with Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as well as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai region, we point out that the GBA still needs to make further efforts in supporting enterprises to grow bigger and stronger, processing tax and fee reduction, and also promoting the domestic substitution of high-tech products. Specifically, there are three suggestions. Firstly, establish a unified large market where different cities or areas can utilize their own strength and reach coordinated development. Secondly, make continuously efforts on tax reduction to help enterprises move forward with less burden. And most importantly, improve the level and speed of domestic substitution, so that we can gradually break through the import dependence of key technologies and parts for other countries.

Full report: https://thinktank.phbs.pku.edu.cn/2021/jingjifenxi_0316/18.html