SHENZHEN, Dec. 19 -- Building upon transformative strides taken over the past decades, the southern Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen is embarking on a new chapter in the country's reform and opening-up efforts.

Shenzhen, once a small fishing village, became a testing ground for China's reform and opening-up when it was designated as one of the country's first special economic zones in 1980.

It evolved into a massive manufacturing center, with assembly lines churning out computers, phones, and other gadgets for many foreign brands. However, escalating labor costs, resource bottlenecks and the changing global situation have made it challenging to sustain this development pattern.

The city is now again at the forefront of China's transformation to high-quality and innovation-driven development, playing a trailblazing role in the country's deepened reform and higher-level opening-up.

NEW MISSION

Known as a paragon of opening-up and development, Shenzhen has developed into a key economic hub, with its GDP topping 3.23 trillion yuan (about 455.04 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022.

As China's reform has entered deep water, grappling with domestic institutional and mechanistic barriers amid a complex external environment, Shenzhen harbors great hopes in pioneering reform as "a pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics." This new mission was assigned to Shenzhen in 2019.

Under a plan for the 2020-2025 period, measures to improve the market-based allocation of factors of production, business environment, and overall utilization of urban space, among others, are Shenzhen's leading attempts amid China's efforts to comprehensively deepen reforms and expand all-around opening-up.

The plan has pledged to pilot comprehensive reform measures, granting Shenzhen greater autonomy in crucial areas and key processes. The goal is to develop replicable experience that can be implemented in other regions.

Three years on, 40 kinds of practices and innovative measures that have proven successful in the city have been underscored by the central government to be replicated in other parts of the country.

In Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, the Shenzhen-Harbin industrial park, which draws on the experience of Shenzhen including streamlining administrative approvals, project bidding and tax incentives for talent, is attracting more and more high-tech companies and supporting the local economy.

Shenzhen's success is not accidental and is not only fit for the city. It is the epitome of China's 40-plus years of reform and opening-up, and can help other countries, said Tao Yitao, director of the China Center for Special Economic Zone Research, a think tank under Shenzhen University.

The think tank is working to introduce Shenzhen's experience to other countries, including Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Kazakhstan, and help them in their building of special economic zones, according to Tao.

CENTER OF INNOVATION

"Shenzhen has turned to supercharging high-tech sectors and trying to reinvent itself as a center of innovation. It's a smart way of development," Tao said.

The city of more than 17.66 million people is now home to some of China's biggest tech players like Huawei, Tencent, BYD and DJI, and is attracting young talent and entrepreneurs from all over the country, as well as from abroad.

"Talent, a complete industrial system as well as an efficient and supportive government combined make Shenzhen a perfect place for innovation," said Li Luyang, co-founder and CEO of VisionNav Robotics, a company that develops and produces driverless forklifts.

"Seriously speaking, in Shenzhen, I can build a prototype twice faster than elsewhere," said Li, who came to Shenzhen after graduating from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

"When we moved to Shenzhen's Hetao zone for sci-tech innovation cooperation in 2020, we only had 75 employees, and now the number has increased to 500 while our business revenue recorded 10-fold expansion during the past three years," he said.

In Shenzhen, innovation platforms such as Hetao and Guangming Science City are giving full play to the potential of talent like Li and fostering tech start-ups, and have become new drivers of innovation.

To attract top talent from around the globe and strengthen its position as an innovation hub, the city last month unveiled a 30-point plan, which encompasses a wide range of initiatives and incentives to foster an ecosystem that encourages entrepreneurship, research and technological advancements.

Last year, it also released the country's first-ever local regulation dedicated to boosting the development of artificial intelligence.

Shenzhen's value-added industrial output of strategic emerging industries expanded 8.3 percent year on year in the first three quarters of 2023, accounting for 42.5 percent of the city's GDP, with the proportion further rising from 41.1 percent in 2022 and 37.7 percent in 2019.

Analysts believe that by creating an environment that offers attractive policies and opportunities, Shenzhen will become a magnet for top talent from around the world, and with the city's ambitious vision and initiative, it can solidify its leading role in innovation and technology.

HIGH-STANDARD OPENING-UP

For Wang Congbao, president of KASIKORNBANK (China) Company Ltd., the wholly foreign-owned entity of leading Thai bank KASIKORNBANK, China's high-standard opening-up makes Shenzhen a city of opportunities.

Unlike other foreign financial institutions that are inclined to establish their China headquarters in the country's financial hub of Shanghai, KASIKORNBANK built its China headquarters in Shenzhen in 2017, betting on opportunities stemming from the development of the country's Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as well as closer cooperation with ASEAN and other Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) member countries.

As the pioneer city of China's reform and opening-up, Shenzhen's competitive advantages in economic vitality, more open market, improving business environment and sound infrastructure have made it an attractive destination for foreign businesses, Wang said.

KASIKORNBANK (China) moved into its newly-purchased office building in downtown Shenzhen this month. "The Chinese market will be the most important engine for our future development. It has already been one of our largest investment entities outside Thailand, and we remain confident in the market," Wang said.

"We believe the biggest stability factor of the Chinese economy lies in the sound economic fundamentals underpinned by a vast domestic market and its policy certainty of continuously pushing forward high-standard opening-up," he added.

In Shenzhen, the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone was established amid China's efforts to promote Qianhai as a test bed for the country's financial reform and opening-up.

The country released 30 rules for Qianhai, aimed at establishing a financial rule system in line with international standards and a world-class financial environment inside the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone by 2035.

The annual Central Economic Work Conference held from Dec. 11 to 12, during which Chinese leaders chart the course for the economy in the coming year, listed priorities including advancing technological innovation to lead the development of a modern industrial system, deepening reforms in key areas, and expanding high-standard opening-up.