Shenzhen and Dongguan provide inspiration to Hong Kong lawmakers on five-city mainland tour to study innovation
The largest group of lawmakers in four years to visit the mainland will learn more about the Greater Bay Area project, that seeks to forge an economic powerhouse across Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong
Hong Kong lawmakers on a five-city tour of mainland China called on the government back home to cut red tape and embrace new technologies, after visiting Shenzhen and Dongguan and praising examples of innovation there.
The group, comprising 23 pro-establishment and nine pan-democrat lawmakers, is the largest delegation of legislators to visit the mainland since April 2014. Then, 50 of them – including 10 pan-democrats – went to Shanghai.
On Friday, accompanied by four ministers, they began a three-day tour to learn more about Beijing’s “Greater Bay Area” project, which aims to forge an economic powerhouse across Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province.
The Bay Area stretches over 56,600 square kilometres, covers 11 economies that were worth US$1.36 trillion in 2016, and has an estimated population of 66.71 million.
The delegation started out in Shenzhen and went to the police department’s Intelligent Traffic Command Centre, tech giant Huawei’s Shenzhen headquarters and WeBank, the first online-only bank and money lender on the mainland.