Hong Kong-Shenzhen-Guangzhou is the biggest 'mega region' in the world, with 120 million people, according to a new United Nations report, 'State of the World's Cities 2010-2011'. It describes how the world's large cities are merging to form vast metropolises.
The second-biggest is the Nagoya-Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe region in Japan, followed by the Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo region in Brazil. Then comes West Africa, an area of 600 kilometres linking Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana as that region's driving economic force. India's mega regions centre round Mumbai and New Delhi.
The report also notes that East Asia has four mega regions and 77 cities with more than 200,000 people each, stretching from Beijing to Tokyo via Pyongyang and Seoul.
Urbanisation, it says, is now unstoppable. Just over half of the world's population live in cities and, by 2050, probably over 70 per cent will be urban dwellers. Mega regions around the world are the key drivers for wealth creation, the report notes; countries become less important from this perspective.
This means regional authorities and city mayors are just as important as national leaders. While national governments chart broad policies, they are implemented at the local level; thus, the quality and ability of local leaders is very important.
How Hong Kong and Guangdong develop the Pearl River Delta region, together with Macau, is very important, not just for us but also in world terms. We are responsible for how we evolve. The key is how we design our cities and what we prioritise.