Guangzhou Digital Exchange collaborates with Hong Kong Financial Group to jointly promote the Nansha digital asset innovation pilot zone.

Recently, a leading digital asset financial service group signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Guangzhou Data Exchange. With the support of the governments of Guangdong and Hong Kong, both parties will promote the establishment of a cross-border flow innovation pilot zone for digital assets in Nansha, Guangzhou, build a compliance investor mechanism, and explore compliant issuance channels for data circulation transactions and innovative digital asset trading services in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, helping to create a new highland for digital economic development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area.

This cooperation is an important measure for both parties to implement the "Opinions on Financial Support for the Deepening of Comprehensive Cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao in Nansha, Guangzhou" (referred to as the "Opinions") jointly issued by the People's Bank of China and five other departments. The "Opinions" propose to support the Guangzhou Data Exchange in improving comprehensive services for data circulation and transaction, strengthening cooperation and connection with licensed digital asset trading platforms in Hong Kong, and innovating the trading service methods for digital assets.

The achievement of this cooperation is a key step for both parties to actively respond to the national strategic deployment and deeply integrate into the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. By taking the collaborative development in the field of digital assets as a breakthrough, the aim is to promote the deep integration of Hong Kong's financial resources with the technology and industrial resources of the mainland. It fully leverages the advantages of the mainland's real industry resource and Hong Kong's strengths as an international financial center in global capital aggregation and efficient financial services, forming organic linkage and deep complementarity. Both parties will use specific practical cases as the entry point to fully connect the digital asset trading rule systems of Guangdong and Hong Kong, jointly formulate relevant standards for data circulation and innovative digital asset trading services, and actively cultivate a compliant digital asset service ecosystem.

Through the deep cooperation of exchanges in Guangdong and Hong Kong, the ecological system of the digital asset industry, compliance, and trial-and-error iteration paths can be clarified. Based on the clear safety red lines and compliance matters of institutional innovation, the underlying assets will be anchored on the blockchain. This will accelerate the innovative services of digital asset trading in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, promoting the full-chain development of digital asset projects from creative incubation to industrial implementation. It aims to build an innovative ecological system for digital assets with global resource allocation capabilities and comprehensively enhance the region's strategic position in the global digital economy landscape.

Since its inauguration in Nansha in September 2022, the Guangzhou Data Exchange has established a "horizontal connection to cities and a vertical connection to industries" full-chain data circulation trading ecosystem. Its business covers 25 industries, including smart manufacturing, finance, and health, with 14 data integration application service bases established nationwide. As a key node for data element circulation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, it deeply explores the cross-border two-way data circulation mechanism, relying on the "Data Special Zone" to promote the cross-border flow of data elements. It has already facilitated the "offshore trade" of cross-border data products, completing the data asset entry work, assisting Guangzhou in achieving a "zero" breakthrough in the entry of cross-border data assets on record, and promoting the transaction of "ESG rating data" with partners located in Hong Kong, thus assisting in the nation's first ESG-type data cross-border transaction.

This cooperation marks an important step in the collaborative development of the digital asset field between Guangdong and Hong Kong, and is expected to inject new momentum into the development of the digital economy in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.