Greater Bay Area: can China ‘integrate’ Hong Kong into its southern economic powerhouse?

Beijing’s plan to develop a vast tech-driven hub across 11 cities calls for financial, technological and cultural integration as well as policy alignment

Some Hongkongers are trying their luck on the mainland and excited about the opportunities, but for others the idea of integration is ‘unconvincing’

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Hong Kong and Shenzhen are seen as “core engines” to power tech start-ups, cross-border trade, investment and financing in the bay area. Photo: Martin Chan

Published: 2:00pm, 18 Jun 2022Updated: 3:48pm, 18 Jun 2022

Beijing wants to develop a vast, technology-driven hub in southern China – like San Francisco’s Silicon Valley or the Tokyo Bay Area, but much bigger.

The Greater Bay Area aims to link nine cities in Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macau – an area spanning 56,000 sq km – to create an economic powerhouse by 2035.

But it will need people like Amy Ng, a 36-year-old Hongkonger, to get on board. Ng has been working in Beijing for a decade and plans to move to Shenzhen next month to start a game design company with friends.

“I was feeling burned out with work during the Covid restrictions in Beijing when I decided to resign,” said Ng, who has left her job at a multinational consultancy in the capital. “Hong Kong friends persuaded me to join them and try our luck in the Greater Bay Area, where the country is luring Hongkongers with development opportunities.”

China’s current five-year plan to 2025 and longer term objectives call for Hong Kong as well as Macau to “integrate into the national development”. Both cities were allowed to retain a high degree of autonomy after their handovers to China in 1997 and 1999 under the “one country, two systems” principle.

Beijing’s Greater Bay Area vision calls for financial, technological and cultural integration as well as policy alignment across the 11 cities. A plan for the area’s development was unveiled in 2019, with Hong Kong and Shenzhen seen as “core engines” to power tech start-ups, cross-border trade, investment and financing.