Beijing approves Guangzhou’s blueprint for 2020
State Council gives green light to city’s ambitious plan but urges integration with HK and Macau
Beijing has approved Guangzhou’s plan to become an international trade centre and regional transportation hub by 2020 with a target population of 18 million residents.
With the blueprint, the southern city aims to regain some of the prestige it held decades ago when it was the mainland’s main economic window to the world.
But the State Council, which approved the plan on Friday, has stressed a holistic approach to building infrastructure in the Pearl River Delta, and asked Guangzhou to further integrate road, port, rail and air links with Hong Kong and Macau.
The Guangdong provincial capital should also use its pilot free-trade zone in Nansha to explore a new cooperation model with the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.
READ MORE: Chinese province Guangdong raises R&D target, turns to innovation to revive economy
In the past, Guangzhou’s push to develop its port and aviation facilities did not have Beijing’s full support, as the central government was concerned about the potential impact on Hong Kong, said Peng Peng, a researcher at Guangzhou Society of Social Sciences.
But as Hong Kong grapples with a host of challenges, from housing to economic drivers, its rival across the border is making another attempt.
“In the future, the Hong Kong factor will become less significant” in deciding on how Guangzhou should grow, Peng said.
The plan also calls for the Nansha FTZ to experiment with deeper reforms in its economic and legal systems, so businesses can advance Beijing’s “One Belt, One Road” strategy, which envisions Guangzhou as a key hub.
A Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress, Professor Priscilla Lau Pui-king, said the blueprint was a reminder to Hong Kong that it would become an “isolated island” if it did not cooperate with mainland cities in the delta region.
“The development potential is greater in Guangzhou than here in Hong Kong,” Lau said.
Hong Kong had focused only on the services and financial industries, while Guangzhou was diversifying its economic base by integrating with nearby cities, such as Qingyuan (清遠), she said.
“Hong Kong has not done enough,” she added, saying some people in the city were resisting greater integration.
READ MORE: China’s economic powerhouse Shenzhen banks on R&D to bring it to greater heights after achieving 8.9 per cent growth last year
A marketing professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong, Leo Sin Yat-ming, said the development of nearby mainland cities could provide Hong Kong with opportunities.
Sin said the internationalisation of mainland cities required financial and legal talent, and Hong Kong could provide the best services in the region as it had the people and experience that rivals over the border lacked.
The plan puts Guangzhou’s population goal at 18 million by 2020. With 13 million residents in 2014, the city will need massive urbanisation and migration to fill the gap.
“If going only on natural growth, Guangzhou would not have that many residents by 2020,” Yuan Qifeng, a city planning professor at Sun Yat-Sen University, told the Guangzhou Daily.
Although migrant workers from middle and western provinces continued to pour in, Guangzhou was growing less attractive as rents climbed, while Shenzhen’s hi-tech firms were luring skilled talent, Peng said.
