Singaporean bank DBS sees immense development prospects in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), an 11-city metropolis area in southern China that includes Shenzhen, which is known as the country’s Silicon Valley, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau, and has 80 million residents and an impressive ecosystem of technology start-ups.

The bank believes that the GBA will trigger a new wave of investment momentum and development opportunities in China, Asia and the global economy, says Sebastian Paredes, head of North Asia, DBS, and chairman, DBS China, speaking at the 2024 DBS GBA Conference in Shenzhen with the theme of Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for the Future.

“To capture the opportunities and tackle the challenges of the GBA market, DBS has developed a series of comprehensive strategic plans for the region, which we have been continuously enhancing and implementing,” Paredes adds. “Looking ahead, we will continue to optimize the application of various technologies, especially AI [artificial intelligence], in financial services to fully seize the business opportunities brought about by the great boom in the GBA.”

In recent years, the bank, it says, has made significant business progress in the GBA by strengthening and expanding its business network and scope, including by:

• becoming in 2021 the largest shareholder of Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank by acquiring a 13% stake and, at the end of 2023, increasing its stake to 16.69%
• launching in 2023 DBS Technology (China) in the China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City
• opening in 2024 its new DBS Treasures Centre in Hong Kong that aims to provide a comprehensive suite of wealth management services and solutions to high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and families.

“DBS is very optimistic about the opportunities in the GBA, and we are also optimistic about GBA’s huge development potential brought by AI-driven productivity,” notes Ginger Cheng, CEO of DBS China speaking at the conference. “DBS China has set up a dedicated team to serve the new economy sector.

“Through cross-sectoral and cross-regional collaboration, we provide full life-cycle financial services to sci-tech start-ups in different sectors and development stages. We will further combine Singapore’s experience and resources as an international financial centre with China’s realities to support the development of GBA and its real economy as well as the ‘new quality productive forces’.”