Opinion | Hong Kong’s mega bridge and high-speed rail should do more than bring in visitors the city cannot cope with
- Paul Yip says Hong Kong needs strategic planning to benefit from its two new infrastructure projects – and a tourist free-for-all will not do the trick
The mega bridge spans the Lingding and Jiuzhou channels and connects Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai, three major cities in the Pearl River Delta. The delta itself is now a megalopolis which has more than 108 million residents according to the 2015 census and which the World Bank has declared the largest urban area in the world in both size and population.
How can Hong Kong leverage this new infrastructure to improve our opportunities and competitiveness? And, in doing so, can we ensure an improvement to the quality of life of Hong Kong residents?
As some cities in the delta are just an hour away from Hong Kong, we now have more choices of where to live and work. However, the probability of Hongkongers moving to the mainland is still quite low at this stage. Health services and the social environment are among the common concerns Hongkongers have about life across the border.