The Greater Bay Area Development Office of the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government held a seminar titled "Leveraging the Greater Bay Area: Promoting IP Trading and New Business Opportunities" in Guangzhou on September 9, 2026. The event promoted Hong Kong's intellectual property (IP) professional services and attracted more than 300 representatives from Hong Kong and various mainland cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).

The seminar aimed to highlight Hong Kong's advantages as a regional IP trading hub and explore how Hong Kong's IP professional services can assist mainland enterprises in making effective use of IP to expand into international markets. It also provided a platform for Hong Kong professional service providers and GBA enterprises to explore potential areas of cooperation.

Lin Ya-wen, Commissioner for the Development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, said that amid ongoing adjustments to the global economic landscape, technological innovation has become a key driver of high-quality development. IP is no longer merely a means of legal protection, but has increasingly become a core corporate asset and a strategic resource for market competition, with significant economic value.

Lin also noted that the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently released its Global Innovation Index 2026 – Global Top 100 Innovation Clusters report, in which the Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou innovation cluster once again ranked first globally. The ranking further highlights the GBA's strong position on the international innovation stage.

She added that the Hong Kong SAR Government will continue to leverage Hong Kong's strengths in legal, tax and professional services, while taking advantage of the national policy supporting Hong Kong's development as a regional IP trading hub. The Government will also strengthen IP protection throughout the value chain and promote the commercialization and industrial application of innovative achievements.

At the seminar, three experts delivered keynote presentations covering the full IP lifecycle, IP transactions, valuation and financing, and cross-border IP dispute resolution.

Two panel discussions were also held. Liu Guoqiang, Assistant Director of the Intellectual Property Department of the Hong Kong SAR Government, joined five Hong Kong experts and representatives of mainland enterprises to share practical experiences of how mainland enterprises have leveraged Hong Kong's professional services to expand into overseas markets, as well as successful cases of IP commercialization by enterprises in the GBA.

Hong Kong is expected to continue playing its role as a "super-connector" and "super value-adder", working with other cities in the GBA to promote the development of IP trading and explore broader opportunities for cooperation.