SAN FRANCISCO, May 16 (Xinhua) -- China's Guangzhou city is doing all it can to attract top financial professionals and other talents to join its ambitious program of building a global financial hub, a municipal official said Wednesday.

Chen Ping, deputy director of the Guangzhou Municipal Financial Bureau, said the municipal government offers various benefits including up to 1 million yuan (about 160,000 U.S. dollars) of cash prize for top-notch professionals to come to work with them so as to achieve the goal of building the Greater Bay Area into a global financial center.

Speaking at its first roadshow on the subject in Silicon Valley, Chen said that Guangzhou has a solid foundation for hi-tech, and that it offers tremendous opportunities for venture capital and financial talents from Silicon Valley.

The Greater Bay Area, comprising a cluster of cities in the Pearl River Delta including Hong Kong and Macau, is one of China's regions of coordinated development, along with the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area and the Yangtze Economic Belt.

The key industries of the area, which are very competitive on the global stage, are high-tech manufacturing, sea and air cargo services, trade-related services (sourcing, trading, freight-forwarding, finance), as well as the digital and innovation industry.

Wednesday's promotional roadshow unveiled for U.S. investors and representatives of financial institutions the city's incentive-based financial policies, investment opportunities, and well-established business environment.

It also highlighted China (Guangzhou) International Finance Expo and cross-border cooperation of the financial industry in Guangzhou.

James J. Shea, senior vice president of UBS International (USB Financial Services Inc.), who delivered a speech on finance and hi-tech in Silicon Valley, told Xinhua that he is very optimistic about the future of China's Great Bay Area.

"It's an amazing opportunity because the Pearl River Delta is the fastest growing economic area in the entire world," he said.

"Looking at China's scale of population and academic focus, we can see 2.8 million graduates from technology (universities) each year, which is five times that of the United States, so I think they will succeed and they are doing amazing things," Shea said.

He also said China's investment environment is improving and it has opened its financial market more to foreign partners.