HONG KONG – The Greater Bay Area Conference 2026, co-organized by China Daily and the Hong Kong Coalition, will be held in Hong Kong on Thursday.

Around 250 delegates are expected to attend the forum, including government officials, diplomats, business leaders, and academics. Distinguished speakers will include Vice-Chairperson of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee Leung Chun-ying, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po and HKEX Chairman Carlson Tong Ka-shing.

As one of China Daily’s signature events, this year’s conference will focus on financial connectivity, space economy and artificial intelligence in education, exploring how the city can capitalize on the dual opportunities of the national 15th Five-Year Plan and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), leverage its role as a superconnector and contribute to the high-quality development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Robots show

The robots are coming. The 2026 XAIR Expo — one of the country’s flagship showcases for the embodied-intelligence crowd — will roll into Guangzhou’s Canton Fair Complex on Thursday, featuring robots, fresh launches and a steady buzz of deal-making.

Featuring embodied intelligence, the guts-and-bones hardware and software that drives it, and industrial use cases, the four-day expo promotes itself as a national gathering that rises from the Greater Bay Area, fans out across the country and lines up with the APEC platform.

Among the agenda are a consolidated release of project demands from Guangdong’s municipal and state-owned players, the debut of a new embodied-intelligence training facility, plus a full slate of sector-specific matchmaking, roadshows, and product premieres geared toward manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, retail and home uses.

Table tennis showdown

The world’s best table-tennis players are heading to Macao with the WTT Champions Macao 2026 scheduled to take place from Sept 8 to 13. The competition will see 64 players in men’s and women’s singles vying for ranking points, prize money, and victory.

The championship has assembled a who’s-who of table-tennis royalty: China’s Wang Chuqin and Kuai Man, Sweden’s Truls Moregardh and Japan’s Sora Matsushima and Miwa Harimoto.

The round of 32 will begin on Sept 8. After the knockout stage, the semifinals and finals on Sept 13 will decide who gets the 1,000 world-ranking points and the crown.

Two more IPOs

Online fast-fashion retailer Shein and industrial robotics and embodied AI firm Mech-Mind Robotics Technologies are set to debut in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

Aiming to raise up to HK$13.86 billion through its IPO, Shein will offer 280 million shares priced between HK$47.6 and HK$49.5 each. About 80 percent of the proceeds will be used to improve Shein’s technological capabilities and strengthen its brand and global presence.

Mech-Mind Robotics meanwhile plans to issue 23.14 million shares at HK$95.3 to HK$101.7 each. About half of the funds raised will go to expanding its product portfolio, broadening application scenarios, enhancing global presence and accelerating commercialization.