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SCMP Reporter

Along the roads of Zhuhai - a mainland special economic zone and Macau's border neighbour - acres of potted flowers are placed and thousands of flags hoisted.

 Decorating every street light are slogans celebrating this weekend's return of the Portuguese colony to the 'motherland' and promising greater co-operation between the two cities in the years ahead.

 However, missing is any of the excitement that usually characterises times of historic transition.

 Just days before Beijing's resumption of political sovereignty over Macau after more than four centuries, this normally laid-back town of 1.18 million people looks downright sleepy.

 Much of Zhuhai's quiet stems from a massive police crackdown that has seen the departure of tens of thousands of transients.

 It began two months ago with a one-night round-up of 5,000 migrants and has expanded to include strict policing of restaurants and entertainment venues.

 'The city is certainly beautiful,' said Xu Xueqiang, an electronics store employee.

 'But nobody is here to see it. If things go on like this there will be absolutely no business, no profits, and everybody will leave.'  More important , though, is the ambivalence many Zhuhai residents feel towards the zone's future ties with Macau.

 'I suppose Macau's return will do some good for Zhuhai, but I can't say what,' said 'Little' Ma, the owner of a small restaurant, speaking for many patrons in her one-room establishment.

 That indifference is shared by city leaders, who this week are publicly celebrating the Macau alliance as an 'historic opportunity' but make clear their intention to turn Zhuhai away from the enclave and towards the Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong.

 Much has to do with the sluggish performance of Zhuhai's economy.

 Despite recording impressive gross domestic product growth of 11.9 per cent last year, foreign trade remains on the skids.

 During the first three quarters of the year, the zone's exports declined year on year by 18.4 per cent, to US$1.87 billion.

 Utilised foreign direct investment also declined over the same period, by 3 per cent, to $627.48 million.

 The city's overseas difficulties cannot be underestimated.

 About 70 per cent of Zhuhai's enterprises are foreign-invested and more than half of the city's output is sold on world markets.

 To make matters worse, the economy is also weathering a painful hangover from this decade's construction boom, which was spearheaded by then party secretary Liang Guangda who oversaw the building of a now heavily indebted international airport and sports centre.

 The construction bonanza naturally led to a property bubble, with developers pouring 17.4 billion yuan (about HK$16.23 billion) into property between 1993 and last year.

 Over the six-year period, 4.63 million square metres of residential housing was completed, as was 1.98 million sq metres of commercial space.

 The results of that misadventure can now be seen along the Gangchang Road waterfront, where rows of luxury residential buildings stand completed and empty, with asking prices at 3,000 yuan per square metre and above, well beyond the reach of local wage earners.

 Given the zone's recent past, it is hardly surprising party secretary and mayor Huang Longyun is looking northwards towards the Pearl River Delta economies for direction.

 Zhuhai, which was established as a special economic zone at the same time as Shenzhen, has traditionally lacked the land, port, talent and finance of its northern counterpart.

 That may be changing, as road and infrastructure building bring Zhuhai closer to the more vibrant economies of the north.

 This month's completion of the six-lane, 54-kilometre Guangzhou to Zhuhai expressway, which reduces travel time between the two cities to 40 minutes, may in the end be viewed as a more significant development for the zone than the formal opening of the $24 million Lotus Flower Bridge connecting Zhuhai to Macau.

 However, one critical factor will be the government's ability to define the economic activities it intends to develop and those it will forego.

 At present, the city lacks clear distinctions in economic planning, evidenced by the municipality's embrace of environmental-friendly tourism and petrochemical manufacture as economic mainstays.

 Of equal importance will be Zhuhai's ability to bolster value-added manufacturing as part of its economy.

 Earlier this year, the city government said it intended to push high technology and new materials manufacture. Already, it claims, about 40,000 workers are engaged in what Zhuhai defines as 'hi-tech' industries.

 Enhancing its place in the mainland's cutting edge, Zhuhai next year will inaugurate the Southern Software Park, one of three nationally sponsored software development zones in the country.

 The park, which enjoys the backing of the Ministry of Information Industry and the State Council, is designed to support 5,000 software developers, who will create programs and Internet products.

 Still, such development begs the question: What of Zhuhai and Macau? To get some idea of what the return of the Portuguese colony means to the zone, one need not travel far from the enclave's northern Barrier Gate.

 Here, a spacious and expansive border station, boasting six vehicle checkpoints and a massive immigration hall, rises from the no-man's land.

 More significant, still, is what lies outside the building in Zhuhai's Gongbei district - a massive plaza that covers a 700 million yuan three-floor underground shopping centre.

 Port Plaza, a joint development between a Zhuhai property company and Hong Kong capital that held its soft opening yesterday, boasts more than 110,000 square metres of retail space and includes a department store, restaurants, electronics boutiques, clothing stores and Chinese medicine shops.

 About 90 per cent of the space in the mall had been leased, said Port Plaza employee Cao Qianyu, as many companies were anxious to capture dollars from the thousands of tourists who visit from Macau daily.



Zhuhai quietly split over Macau's return