‘Government inaction has cost Hong Kong advantages over other bay area cities’

But all is not lost, says report from academics, adding that quick action could revive city’s innovation prospects

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A view of the city of Shenzhen across Deep Bay in Lau Fau Shan, Hong Kong. Photo: EPA

Published: 9:48am, 1 Dec 2017Updated: 11:04am, 1 Dec 2017

Government failure to maintain Hong Kong’s economic advantages in innovation and technology has caused it to fall behind local rivals, a group of academics said on Thursday.

But the city can still rekindle its niche in logistics and high-value-added services through the “Greater Bay Area” scheme if the local government can speed up policymaking to ease cross-border trade, according to the joint report from Hang Seng Management College and Chinese University.

The Greater Bay Area is the central government’s plan to link Hong Kong, Macau, and nine mainland cities in the Pearl River Delta into an integrated innovation and technology hub.

A co-author of the report, Professor Cheung Wai-man said the plan’s success hinged on how well the cities integrate and complement each other to maximise their respective competitive edges.

But he said Hong Kong’s advantages in innovation and logistics had eroded in recent years, and blamed government inaction for that.

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“Hong Kong has been talking about being an IT hub for two decades without taking significant actions. Now this ambition has been taken up by Shenzhen. Also the Hong Kong government has failed to provide any policies to facilitate its logistics development,” he said.