Bay Area ‘geared toward ordinary people’
The nation’s Greater Bay Area development drive would be a boon for ordinary people in the region as the blueprint emphasizes livelihood improvement, researchers, academics and industry players said on Thursday.
Speaking at a book-launch seminar on the GuangdongHong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development plan, the commentators compared the Bay Area project with the previous business-focused regional cooperation plan — the Framework for Development and Reform Planning for Pearl River Delta Region, put in place a decade ago.
Economic cooperation with cities in the Guangdong province is regarded as a key issue in the region’s development. However, authorities now focus on making it convenient for Hong Kong people to live, work and do business in the Bay Area.
“The biggest difference between the previous development plans and the recent Bay Area blueprint is that the Bay Area puts livelihood into the top priority,” said Joe Fang Zhou, research director of the One Country Two Systems Research Institute.
He believes Hong Kong will be the biggest beneficiary in the Bay Area.
Hong Kong has long been beset by livelihood problems and an unbalanced industrial structure, Fang said. The solutions lie in giving Hong Kong a bigger plot of land by cooperating with surrounding cities.
In addition to building an international innovation and technology hub and increasing the flow of talents, capital and goods within the region, Fang suggested Bay Area cities join efforts in infrastructure construction to solve problems.
Landfills are one of the most urgent, Fang said. Hong Kong’s landfills are expected to hit capacity within a few years but opposition by local residents has prevented the government from building an incinerator.
“Cities like Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Guangzhou are facing the same problem,” he said.
“Thus these cities can jointly set up a giant incinerator on a deserted island in the Bay Area, where the cities can send their trash by cargo vessel,” Fang proposed.
James Wang Jixian, visiting associate professor at Department of Management Sciences of City University of Hong Kong, echoed Fang’s view.
“Sea pollution in the Bay Area could not be solved by the effort of only one city. Cooperation within the Bay Area empowers the cities to find the solution,” said Wang.
The Bay Area development plan is not a one-off policy, Wang said. It involves the central government and authorities in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao which set it apart from any other framework applied in the Pearl River Delta Region, he said.
Local business leaders called on Hong Kong people to use the opportunities ahead.
“I didn’t expect much when I first developed my company in Shenzhen,” said Shih Wingching, founder of Centaline Property Agency. “But the mainland’s economy boomed… I have more than 3,000 shops in Hong Kong and more than 30,000 shops located in the Bay Area,” he said.
“My company size would be much smaller if I only focused in Hong Kong. It will be a waste if we missed the opportunity to develop there.”
He suggested the people of Hong Kong look at the country’s development in a new light. However he also warned the mainland had become a more competitive place to grow a business than Hong Kong was.
The Bay Area development plan is being formulated and will be made public for implementation “very soon”, Premier Li Keqiang said on the final day of the two sessions meeting in Beijing on Tuesday.