HK has more to contribute to nation
September's economic summit on the strategy Hong Kong should adopt in the economic development of China was an unprecedented exercise. Its significance went beyond the policy proposals aired by participants at the conference. What mattered more was the way in which the high-level exercise was seen to be conducted.
The event saw Hong Kong's best and brightest engaging publicly in considering how the city should react to the country's 11th five-year plan. This followed the inclusion of the city in the plan for the first time. It provides that under 'one country, two systems', the mainland supports the development of Hong Kong's financial services, logistics, tourism and information services industries, and maintenance of our status as an international centre of financial services, trade and shipping.
Entitled 'Our Way Forward', the summit's report contains 50 strategic recommendations and 207 specific measures. Many of them are not really new and had been floated on various occasions by their proponents. But now that they have been raised in the context of how Hong Kong can contribute to the nation's development, the central government should become more receptive to the ideas. For one thing, they would be less likely to be seen as self-serving. And that is important.
As Hong Kong is set to mark the 10th anniversary of its reunification with China, a widely held misconception is that we have been going to Beijing with a begging bowl for favourable policies. That is how the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement between the mainland and Hong Kong is seen, as is the scheme allowing mainland residents to visit Hong Kong on individual visas.
While Hong Kong does benefit from these measures, what has been overlooked is that they are also putting right past wrongs. For too long, the mainland has put too many hurdles in the way of the free flow of capital, goods and people across the border. More balanced and unhindered cross-border flows benefit the nation as a whole, not just Hong Kong.
The summit was also a useful exercise in giving focus to Hong Kong's positioning. Hong Kong has long been struggling to find its place in an emerging China that no longer needs our city as a 'middle-man' enabling it to interact with the outside world. Under former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, there was a frantic search for new locomotives for the economy. Various proposals, such as developing Hong Kong as so-called ports for traditional Chinese medicine and information technology, were bandied about. Some ideas, such as Cyberport, were acted upon without spurring the coveted growth they were supposed to bring about.