China Focus: Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area accelerates growth in low-altitude economy

The 2025 Conference on High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) convened in Guangzhou, bringing together government leaders, industry executives, and researchers to chart a path for innovation-led expansion across the region.

Low-altitude economy—encompassing drones, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, unmanned systems, and related infrastructure—has emerged as a strategic frontier for technological progress and new drivers of growth. With its deep industrial base and cross-border advantages, the GBA is increasingly positioned to set the pace for China’s next wave of aviation and smart mobility applications.

Guangdong’s industrial strength anchors GBA leadership

As the GBA’s core engine, Guangdong Province plays an outsized role in the sector. According to provincial development data, the region hosts more than 15,000 enterprises along the low-altitude industry chain—around 30 percent of the national total—spanning manufacturing, software, services, and operations. Global leaders such as EHang and DJI underscore the province’s competitive edge.

Output remains robust: in 2024, Guangdong produced 6.94 million civilian drones, accounting for roughly 95 percent of China’s consumer-grade market and 54 percent of the industrial-grade segment. This scale, combined with a mature supply chain and strong R&D capabilities, provides a solid foundation for accelerated commercialization of low-altitude applications.

Cross-border collaboration gains momentum

The conference delivered a slate of cooperation agreements among Hong Kong, Macao, Guangzhou, and Zhuhai. These cover government-enterprise partnerships, joint research platforms, and new operating models designed to knit together a networked industrial ecosystem. The aim is to streamline cross-jurisdictional standards, share testing resources, and speed the rollout of services such as logistics, emergency response, aerial tourism, and urban air mobility.

Officials highlighted the region’s favorable innovation environment, world-class business conditions, and complete industrial system as key advantages. By aligning policy pilots with market demand and industry capabilities, stakeholders expect to cut time-to-market for new technologies and expand demonstration scenarios across the delta.

Policy pilots in Hong Kong and Macao

Hong Kong is capitalizing on its international orientation and regulatory expertise. In March, the city launched a regulatory sandbox for low-altitude projects, enabling controlled trials of technologies, operations, and related infrastructure. The initiative is designed to facilitate safe testing while gathering data for future rules on airspace management, certification, and service delivery.

Positioning itself as a “super-connector,” Hong Kong aims to harness its roles in finance, shipping, and trade to support capital formation, cross-border partnerships, and international standards alignment. Closer collaboration with Guangzhou and other GBA cities is expected to accelerate high-quality development and create replicable models for operations in dense urban environments.

Macao has set up a dedicated task force to advance the low-altitude economy. Authorities there view the sector as a national strategic industry and a fresh engine for regional integration. Macao plans to deepen cooperation with neighboring cities to build application scenarios suited to its tourism and services-oriented economy—such as aerial sightseeing, smart logistics, and rapid medical transport.

Roadmap for 2025: integrating hubs and scaling applications

A newly released 2025 blue book on the GBA low-altitude industry outlines a coordinated development framework. It emphasizes the pivotal roles of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Zhuhai as core hubs for R&D, manufacturing, and operations, while calling for deeper integration with Hong Kong and Macao on regulation, finance, and international outreach.

Priority areas include:

• Building an intercity demonstration corridor to validate cross-boundary flight operations and data interoperability.
• Advancing common standards for airworthiness, safety, and digital airspace management to enable scalable operations.
• Expanding public-service use cases—emergency response, environmental monitoring, and urban management—to drive adoption.
• Strengthening talent pipelines and applied research through university-industry collaboration.
• Unlocking diversified financing channels to support startups and the industrial chain’s mid- and downstream segments.

Outlook

With Guangdong’s manufacturing muscle, Hong Kong’s international connectivity, and Macao’s service-sector strengths, the GBA is coalescing around a complementary model for the low-altitude economy. The latest agreements and policy pilots signal a shift from isolated trials to coordinated, cross-border implementation.

As standards mature and demonstration zones expand, stakeholders expect faster commercialization of logistics, passenger, and public-service applications. The GBA’s integrated approach—combining regulatory innovation, industrial depth, and market-driven collaboration—positions it to be a leading testbed and growth pole for low-altitude industries in China and beyond.