Analysis Hong Kong is odd man out in plan to integrate bay area
Analysts say the city’s distinctive administrative and legal systems pose a challenge for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area scheme
Hong Kong’s special status in China is seen as a key challenge for a plan to integrate it economically with the cities around it, with observers calling on Beijing to establish a coordination committee to address the issue.
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area plan surfaced in Premier Li Keqiang’s annual work report during the National People’s Congress (NPC) session this month. It aims to coordinate development in the area, to tap into markets in Southeast and South Asia and lift the region’s competitiveness with rival bay areas in New York and Tokyo.
The bay area scheme was first floated in a 2011 study of development possibilities involving Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Zhongshan.
However, planning experts said the principle of “one country, two systems”, which preserves Hong Kong’s separate administrative and legal systems, posed integration challenges.
Professor Lin Jiang of Sun Yat-sen University said he was not optimistic about the prospects for integrating Hong Kong and Macau with the other nine Pearl River Delta cities, after observing various cross-border integration talks over the years.