While helping Shenzhen mingle with the world, multinational business leaders yield rich fruits in return.

Investment from Hong Kong became central to economic development in Shenzhen. Approximately 80 percent of large projects with an investment at or above $10 million and businesses with annual exports valued over $10 million have received investment from Hong Kong businesspeople over the past 30 years.

At the beginning of the reform and opening up program in early 1980, a large batch of business compatriots in Hong Kong went to Shenzhen to open businesses, forming a "shop-factory," a win-win type of operation. There emerged many outstanding leaders of Hong Kong businesses. They made great contributions to Shenzhen's development over the past 30 years.

The legend continues?

After having led China on the road of reform and opening up, which shifted the country from a planned economy to a market economy, Shenzhen must figure out how to remain a pioneer in the next round of historic change.

This challenge is much greater now than it was 30 years ago. Facing rivalry from the cities of Guangzhou and Zhuhai, within the province, and large cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, and Suzhou, how can Shenzhen once again take the lead in China's reform? Shenzhen therefore now faces more challenges than opportunities, according to an article in the Beijing-based news magazine Outlook Weekly.

Wang Rong, Secretary of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee, said in his government report on May 31 that efforts will be made to build the pioneering city of reform and opening up into a "modern international advanced metropolis," a status aspired to by 183 cities nationwide, according to statistics.

Wang's speech stirred arguments: Will the effort to turn the city into a "modern international metropolis" weaken the reform functions of the special economic zone? Will the city retain its special characteristics and its pioneering spirit of reform?

As the Shenzhen SEZ celebrates its 30th anniversary, then, people at home and abroad are not concerned with its rapid growth in the past 30 years, but how the city will fare in the next three decades, a crucial period for the Chinese people to transform the country's growth mode.

In an article in People's Daily, Wang vowed to continue to play the role of vanguard. "We shall carry forward Shenzhen's pioneering spirit of reform and renovation, so as to create a new road for future development," he said.