Liu Shangxi: The Key to Port Cooperation Lies in Providing Enterprises with a More Inclusive, Cost-Effective, and Predictable Institutional Environment

Source: Times Weekly
Author: Wang Chenting

“The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Hainan Free Trade Port are both strategic platforms for high-level opening-up promoted by the country. Their synergy is expected to achieve a ‘1+1>2’ effect.”

On March 22, Liu Shangxi, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Vice President of the China Macroeconomics Society, said in an interview at the 2026 Harbor Cooperation and Exchange Conference.

Liu Shangxi believes that harbor cooperation is a continuous process aimed at creating a world-class high-level open platform. This cooperation should be viewed in a broader context. “Building a new form of intelligent economy” was a hot topic at the 2026 Two Sessions, reflecting that the digital revolution has entered a new stage of development. Under this trend, the two major open platforms must also adapt to the direction of digitalization and intelligence.

“Future growth potential lies in digitalization and intelligence. Harbor cooperation should be based on the digital revolution, promoting coordinated development of digitalization and intelligence, and cultivating new economic models,” Liu Shangxi said.

Guangdong leads the nation in digital economy, while Hainan has advantages in institutional opening-up. Combining the two can potentially lead to breakthroughs in digitalization and intelligence, providing Chinese standards and experience for global digital economy governance, while also driving the nationwide digital and intelligent development process and creating a demonstration effect. This is the significance of harbor cooperation—acting as a fulcrum to generate leverage and stimulate the development of a new intelligent economy.

However, it must be recognized that the logic of developing an intelligent economy differs from traditional industrialization. It is based on data, with emerging forms such as artificial intelligence, embodied intelligence, and humanoid robots, fundamentally changing human-machine relationships. This will reshape the entire economic and social structure, especially industrial forms.

Because of this, the development of digitalization and intelligence is full of uncertainties. New technological forms are constantly emerging, and the traditional legal systems, rules, and regulatory frameworks based on industrialization are no longer fully applicable, requiring rapid iteration and updates.

Liu Shangxi believes that a key challenge now is how laws, regulations, and supervision can keep pace with technological changes. On one hand, risk prevention is necessary; on the other hand, an inclusive space for market entities to experiment and fail should be provided, reducing compliance costs, especially the costs associated with compliance risks.

Therefore, the key to cooperation between the two regions lies in aligning systems and rules, providing a more inclusive, cost-effective, and predictable institutional environment for enterprises and innovation entities. In the face of increasing uncertainties, the government must both prevent risks and create certainty for innovation.

“Government innovation is becoming increasingly important. In a sense, the government’s own innovation, rule innovation, and regulatory innovation are prerequisites for other types of innovation. With this, market innovation will flourish like mushrooms after rain,” Liu Shangxi said.