The Reform Office of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee announced on July 11 that the Commission for Deepening Reform of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee recently laid out plans for Zhongshan to construct the "Guangdong Reform and Innovation Experimental Zone for the Integrated and Interactive Development of the East and West Banks of the Pearl River Estuary". Focuses will be on the integrated development of business environment, industries, transportation, innovation, public services and city planning.

The Commission for Deepening Reform urged efforts on exploring and innovating solutions for such aspects as land fragmentation, investment project approval, science and technology innovation and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan cooperation, strengthening interactive development with Shenzhen Qianhai, Guangzhou Nansha, Dongguan Binhaiwan Bay Area and other major platforms, striving to build Zhongshan into a support point for the integrated development of the east and west banks of the Pearl River Estuary, a coastal economic belt hub city and an important pole in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and building a high-quality GBA city.

The Commission for Deepening Reform also required increased support and guidance for the construction of the experimental zone, and increased policy support to resolve urgent problems in reform and innovation. Zhongshan is allowed to directly get access to the province-level authority delegated to other reform and innovation experimental zones in Guangdong.