Hub plan broadens view on Pearl delta

Guangdong and Hong Kong can benefit from an envisaged 'Pan-Pearl River Delta', if strategic transport networks converging on Guangdong as a hub are developed.

But the recently announced grand plan to integrate all of China's southern provinces into a super hub centred on the country's most prosperous economic zone faces formidable hurdles.

The jaw-dropping concept to link all of China's provinces south of the Yangtze River was announced last November by Zhang Dejiang, a politburo member and Guangdong party chief. It coincided with the 10 participating regions agreeing to integrate transport networks, with promises to halt duplication on inter-provincial bus routes while freeing up competition.

Hong Kong and Macau are expected to win State Council approval to be formally included in a vast transport nexus fanning out from Guangdong towards Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hainan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chongqing municipality. At stake for Guangdong is its future as the dragon's head of the southern China economy.

The province urgently needs to develop a comprehensive transport network to the interior otherwise competing hubs such as Shanghai will develop rival transport networks into areas such as Fujian province, which lies between Shanghai and Guangdong and is undoubtedly vying for the attention of both centres, according to Michael Enright, Sun Hung Kai professor of business at Hong Kong University.

'Whoever sets up the infrastructure first wins,' he said.