An innovation and entrepreneurship service center for young people from Hong Kong and Macao was launched on Jan 6 in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province.

People from Hong Kong and Macao below the age of 44 who start businesses at the Guangzhou Hong Kong-Macao Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Service Center will not be charged rent for the first two years.

"The service center will help greatly reduce financial burdens for young people from the two regions who bring projects and start their businesses on the mainland," said Li Rongxin, director of the Guangzhou Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Service Center, which also runs the center for Hong Kong and Macao youth.

Their businesses should be in emerging industries including new-generation information technology, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, new energy, new materials, advanced manufacturing and cultural innovation, Li said.

The service center, with an office area of 4,200 square meters in downtown Guangzhou, can accommodate 270 people in 60 entrepreneurship teams, he said.

The center is equipped with open and independent office areas, reading spaces, fitness rooms and rest areas.

A growing number of young people from Hong Kong and Macao have moved to Guangzhou, in the heart of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, to start businesses since the city issued a plan in 2019 to support young people from the two special administrative regions wanting to work and start businesses on the mainland.

"The Bay Area development is a major opportunity for Hong Kong, offering a very good opportunity for the new generation of Hong Kong to participate in the growth of the mainland," said Sunny Ng, a young person from Hong Kong who now runs his own business in Guangzhou.

Ng resigned from a financial institution in Hong Kong and founded a company focused on the blockchain business in Guangzhou's Huangpu district in 2017.

With more than 50 employees, Ng's business has expanded from Guangzhou to Shenzhen, also in Guangdong, as well as to Hong Kong and Singapore.

Guangzhou, which received approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology last year to construct the first blockchain development pilot demonstration zone in China, has registered more than 400 blockchain companies, mainly involved in government administration, finance, biomedicine, livelihood matters and manufacturing industries.

"Backed by the government policy, I hope my company can become a leader in the blockchain industry in the near future," Ng said.