The Global Bay Areas Cooperation and Development Forum (GBAF), an international gathering which aims to deepen cooperation between bay areas worldwide, is expected to be held in San Francisco on March 28 to 29, 2019.

Preeminent leaders from renowned metropolitan and bay areas worldwide, including New York, San Francisco, London, Tokyo, Sydney, and the Northern Germany Innovation Hub, will attend the forum to navigate new paths for the future of the global economy, as well as considering the historical times through which we are living.

Global bay area economic society congregates in San Francisco

The forum is a “family gathering” of the international economic circle of prominent metropolitan and bay areas, as well as a grand debut for China’s recently established Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Focusing on the theme of “Connection, Cooperation, Development”, the forum will bring together core institutions, top enterprises, think-tank experts, and economists from the six featured bay areas mentioned, who will engage in in-depth discussion on a wide range of topics, including economic globalization, regional integration, sustainable development of the global bay areas, as well as technological innovations. The forum aims to promote international exchanges and seeks to find consensus on key issues, as well as compact the leading role of the global bay area economy.

Forum focus:

Regional development and cooperation beneficial to all

The role of non-governmental coordinating agencies in the collaborative development of global metropolitan and bay areas

How global bay areas address “issues of urban development”

Good to great: how art and culture push regional development to new heights

New opportunities and challenges facing the development of Global Bay Areas

How technological innovation boosts sustainable global economic development

Cooperation and development opportunities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

The secret to the continued prosperity of global bay areas’ economies

The global economy has never fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. Anti-globalization has become a new trend worldwide, with many countries abusing protectionism, further dampening global economic development. International divergence on free trade has become even more apparent, leading to stagnant global economic growth. Intensified geopolitical conflicts have become more frequent, while a new international economic landscape has yet to develop fully. Even worse, new “black swan” and “grey rhino” economic obstacles hinder the healthy development of the global economy.

Economic globalization is now facing many problems, and even the concept of “regional economic integration,” which was once approved by the world, is now bottlenecking. Brexit, the dire situation of the Euro Zone, the US withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), the shelving of the Trans-Pacific Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP), and the reorganization of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) guidelines were all indicative of the trend toward increasing exclusivity among regional economies.

The world economy seems lost, without a path to follow. As a unique model of regionalized economies, the continuous prosperity of the Global Bay Areas (San Francisco, New York, and Tokyo) since the industrial revolution may shed some light for future transnational economic development. These areas possess natural geographical advantages, open economic structures, efficient resource allocation capabilities, profound knowledge and capital spillover from economies of agglomeration, and well-developed international network traffic. They have become salient breeding grounds for leading regional economic development and technological innovation. According to the World Bank, 60 percent of the global economic aggregate comes from the port bays and their surrounding areas.