On November 18, 2024, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Cross-border Flow of Scientific Research and Creative Data Seminar was held in Macao Special Administrative Region of China, which attracted many expert representatives from government departments, universities, scientific research institutes, and the business sector to discuss in depth the development situation, challenges, and future direction of cross-border flow of data in the Greater Bay Area. Liu Dong, Director of China Future Internet Engineering Center (CFIEC) and Director of International Research Institute of Next Generation Internet of Macao University of Science and Technology (IRING), said on the spot that the Greater Bay Area will build “cross-border data space” by applying technologies such as data space and IPv6, on the basis of opening up the “rule channel” to comprehensively improve the data infrastructure. On the basis of opening up the “rules channel”, the Greater Bay Area will apply data space and IPv6 and other technologies to build “cross-border data space”, comprehensively enhance the data infrastructure and data processing service capacity, support the development of the wave of artificial intelligence industry, and actively build an “international data hub” for the future.

President Liu Dong firstly elaborated on the policy status quo and huge opportunities in cross-border data flow in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area with detailed data and in-depth analysis. He pointed out that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has steadily risen to become a core strategic region for science and technology innovation in China, thanks to its unique geographic advantages, rich and diversified higher education resources, and the rapid development of the digital economy in recent years. And the importance of cross-border flow of data, as a key element in the digital economy era, in promoting economic globalization and facilitating cooperation in science and technology innovation is self-evident. Since 2017 to the present, China's mechanism for cross-border flow of data has gone through a process from establishment to optimization. Under the framework of the Cybersecurity Law, the Data Security Law, and the Personal Information Protection Law, China's “three paths” for managing cross-border flow of data for important data and personal information: security assessment, authentication, and standardized contracts have all been formally implemented. In particular, in March this year, the “Provisions on Promoting and Regulating Cross-border Flow of Data” was released and came into effect, exempting simple outbound scenarios of personal information, such as human resources management, and expanding the scope of application of authentication and standard contracts, which facilitates cross-border operations and the departure of enterprises to the sea. At the same time, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has also taken key steps in policy synergy on cross-border flow of data, with the “Implementation Guidelines for Standard Contracts for Cross-border Flow of Personal Information in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Mainland and Hong Kong)” formally announced, and the “Memorandum of Co-operation on Facilitation of Cross-border Flow of Data in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao” successfully signed. A series of initiatives have provided institutional safeguards for the cross-border flow of data in the Greater Bay Area, and effectively eliminated many policy barriers and uncertainties that previously existed. A series of initiatives have provided institutional safeguards for the cross-border flow of data in the Greater Bay Area, effectively eliminating the many policy barriers and uncertainties that previously existed, and laying a solid foundation for the standardized and facilitated development of cross-border flow of data in the Greater Bay Area.

Macao University of Science and Technology has done a lot of exploration in data cross-border, and the “rules + management + technology” trinity protection system has become a benchmark for data cross-border. At the rule level, it strictly follows the national and regional data management regulations and has formulated a series of rigorous and detailed rules and regulations on data cross-border management; at the management level, the university has set up a special data management team responsible for coordinating all matters related to data cross-border, and has implemented the whole process of refined management from data collection, storage to transmission and use to ensure data safety and control; at the technical level, it has invested a lot of resources to develop a platform for the management of cross-border flow of scientific research data. At the technical level, the university has invested a lot of resources in the research and development of a cross-border flow management platform for scientific research data, which integrates a number of cutting-edge information technologies and is equipped with functions such as data encryption, identity authentication, access control, etc., which effectively guarantees the security and integrity of data in the process of cross-border transmission. With this comprehensive protection system, the university's cross-border flow management platform for scientific research data has successfully obtained China's first personal information protection certification and Macau's license for cross-border transfer of personal data, which provides a successful example for universities and scientific research institutes in the Greater Bay Area and even the whole country in terms of cross-border management of data to learn from.

Technological innovation is undoubtedly the core driving force for cross-border development of data. The official launch of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Research, Science and Technology Digital Computing Collaboration Platform is a further sign that the Greater Bay Area has taken a big and solid step forward in the collaborative development of science and technology innovation. The platform integrates a series of cutting-edge technologies such as IPv6 and data space, and successfully realizes the efficient collaborative sharing of scientific research materials, academic resources and AI infrastructure resources among universities. The wide application of IPv6 technology provides a broader address space and higher transmission efficiency for data transmission, and effectively solves many problems in data identification, hierarchical classification and access control, etc. The distributed data collaboration platform based on the data space technology provides a safe, trustworthy and controllable interaction environment for data providers and users, and realizes accurate docking and efficient utilization of the data; with the powerful cloud computing, the platform successfully realizes efficient collaboration and sharing of scientific research materials and AI infrastructure resources among universities. With the powerful cloud computing and storage capacity, researchers can obtain the required computing resources and data services anytime and anywhere, which greatly improves the efficiency and flexibility of scientific research work.

President Liu Dong further pointed out that with cross-border data space as the technical base, cross-border data circulation will also produce multiplier effects in many fields. Including in the medical field, through the establishment of cross-border referral cooperation mechanism and mutual recognition system of medical imaging results, it can provide patients in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao with more convenient and efficient medical services, and promote the optimal allocation of medical resources and the exchange and sharing of medical technology. Meanwhile, in industries such as wine tourism and exhibition, finance and insurance, cross-border flow of data also provides strong support for enterprises to innovate business models and improve service quality. For example, in the wine tourism and exhibition industry, through the integration of tourism resource information and exhibition activity data within the Greater Bay Area, precise marketing and personalized services have been achieved, attracting more domestic and international tourists and exhibitors; in the financial and insurance industry, cross-border data flow has helped to strengthen risk assessment and supervisory cooperation, and to enhance the stability and competitiveness of the financial market.

Looking ahead, President Liu Dong suggests that Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area can give full play to its policy advantages and technological innovation capabilities, proactively carry out wider and deeper data cross-border cooperation with countries and regions such as the EU and ASEAN, fully learn from international advanced experience, combine with itself, continuously optimize the mechanism of cross-border data flow, and improve the level of data governance; and comprehensively build a cross-border data space network by strengthening the construction of data infrastructure, improve the data standard system and security guarantee mechanism to promote the free flow of data and innovative applications; enhance the capacity of data infrastructure, increase the investment in and construction of infrastructure such as big data centers, cloud computing platforms, high-speed networks, etc., so as to provide more solid technical support for the flow of data. These efforts will comprehensively promote the digital economy of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao to a new stage of high-quality development, and turn the Greater Bay Area into a globally recognized “international data circulation hub”, occupying an important position in the competitive landscape of the global digital economy.