BEIJING — Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan has called for efforts to boost social causes such as education and healthcare in South China's Guangdong province to better serve the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Sun, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during a three-day research tour in Guangdong that ended Oct 12.

She visited major higher education and medical institutions in the province and presided over a symposium in Shenzhen, asking local departments to make more specific policies and measures to serve the construction of the Greater Bay Area, enhance their coordination and help push the development of the area to a new level.

Sun urged efforts to optimize the structure of higher education of the Greater Bay Area and encouraged universities in Guangdong to open up their resources in scientific research to universities and research institutes in Hong Kong and Macao.

She also asked for further cooperation and exchanges of talent in medical care within the Greater Bay Area, better implementation of the policies that grant Hong Kong and Macao's medical institutions and doctors access to the mainland, and deeper cooperation in traditional Chinese medicine.

Li Xi, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, attended the events along the tour.