Inside Out | Shenzhen’s growth is poised for another leap into warp speed as the Greater Bay Area kicks off

It seems that Beijing’s plan to create the Greater Bay Area in Guangdong province is arriving not a moment too soon.

Not only is it one of the biggest new economic ideas to erupt in China since Deng Xiaoping seeded the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) across southern China in the early 1980s, it is going to be big for Hong Kong. But that is not today’s story, for above all else, it will be big for Shenzhen.

Shenzhen’s extraordinary 21st Century growth story is unique. It has in some ways outgrown Hong Kong. But it has also outgrown itself. It is the perfect locus for southern China’s next big leap - to sit at the heart of the creation of a globally significant megacity region that will perhaps embrace 65 million people.

But it is open to question whether it has the coherence and institutional maturity to fulfil what otherwise might be its destiny. If we in Hong Kong are smart, we will work jointly with Shenzhen to build a shared destiny. Who knows whether that will happen.

There is a dreamlike unreality in comparing today’s Shenzhen with the ramshackle township I first saw in the late 1970s.