IT IS CURIOUS how the big HK2030 study purports to sketch the future of Pearl River Delta integration while various moves afoot actually point to greater segregation in key areas.
Take, for instance, the word from government sources that a site west of Tuen Mun is out of the running for the proposed container terminal 10 (CT10). It would require the government to dredge the Tonggu channel, or a route parallel to it, opening the rival ports of Chiwan and Shekou to 24-hour deep-sea traffic.
As our reporters put in words I cannot better, 'the south China ports, whose ability to serve the biggest ships is hampered by tidal restriction, would benefit greatly from dredging the channel, which is why Hong Kong has been hesitant to approve funding for the 7km stretch under its jurisdiction'.
But it was integration at which we were aiming, was it not? Would integration not imply that Hong Kong do what it does best and other delta locations do what they do best? Can someone please tell me in that case how it makes sense to transport goods made on the mainland through the choke-point of the Hong Kong border, where a monopoly on cross-border vehicle licences has its hand stuck out for a big pay-off, and then along crowded roads that cost us a fortune to build in order to reach a port made more distant than it has to be (Tuen Mun would be closest to the border) when Chiwan and Shekou are closer to the production centres and could offer lower costs?
You would have thought that the dredgers would be out there now clearing that channel if integration were our object. That would be the way to enhance competitiveness of the Pearl River Delta.
Similarly, why are the planners so taken with creating a 99-hectare trade exposition site at the border for the benefit of the western provinces to show their wares and attract funds?
The stated rationale is that agreements signed there would come under Hong Kong's laws and, with visa-free access to mainlanders, the site could also serve as a one-stop shop for professional services. It strikes me that visas can hardly be a problem when we already have 7.75 million visitors a year from the mainland, and if a businessman from Yunnan wants Hong Kong law and professional services he can find them more easily in Central.