GUANGZHOU -- Poon Hung-fai, from Hong Kong, says his comfort zone is on both sides of the Pacific. He naturally switches between Mandarin, Cantonese and English when necessary.

Poon was raised in Hong Kong and received his doctorate in the United States. The biochemist has anchored his entrepreneurship in the Chinese city of Zhongshan in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). He said that as a scientist, all his choices are made based on first-hand data and rational thinking.

"The experience of studying and working abroad broadened my horizon and, more importantly, made me notice the broad prospects of the biomedical industry in the Chinese mainland," he said.

But he was hesitant at first. Before his move, he was already a senior researcher at a well-known US biotechnology company and a technical director for the Asia-Pacific region.