Fok family aims to turn hub into new Guangzhou
Goal is to see new economic zone as a place to live, work and relax - just a short ride from HK
After helping turn around the fortunes of their ancestral hometown Nansha by aiding its transformation from "the Siberia of the Pearl River Delta" into an economic hub in 25 years, the offspring of the late entrepreneur Henry Fok Ying-tung are on a new mission - creating a "new Guangzhou".
Eric Fok Kai-shan, the third-generation Fok scion and vice-president of Fok Ying Tung Group, told the South China Morning Post that more investments had been lined up for Nansha, one of the three pilot economic zones in Guangdong province under the State Council's 12th five-year plan.
"We keep in mind overall town planning rather than focus on stand-alone projects," Fok said. "We view Nansha as the centre of the delta, with deeper co-operation with Hong Kong."
The family's goal is to see the Nansha new zone as a place where people could live, work or holiday within an hour's ride from Hong Kong by high-speed trains when they come on stream in 2015.
The Fok family is among the 500 Hong Kong investors in Nansha. Together they account for 20 per cent of the district's annual economic output of 40 billion yuan (HK$50.6 billion).
The family is extending the legacy of Henry Fok, who brought to the country in 1980 the first Western hotel, White Swan, in Guangzhou, as well as the concept of toll roads and bridges.
Henry Fok was among the few pioneering investors from Hong Kong in Nansha, which was then only a bleak granite quarry site known as "the Siberia of the Pearl River Delta".