The 24-point action plan, unveiled on Monday, was released just before the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s launch of its plan to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and nine mainland Chinese cities into an economic powerhouse.

The document focused on alignment of business rules and standards in the bay area with international norms and the setting up of a market-oriented, law-based and global business environment.

“[We will] adopt new customs clearance models such as the ‘co-location arrangement’ and the ‘collaborative inspection and joint clearance’ mode at more control points,” the action plan said.

The document added authorities wanted to “promote the implementation of ‘24-hour customs clearance’ at more crossings based on actual needs.”

Just two of the city’s 14 mainland border checkpoints, the Lok Ma Chau control point and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Hong Kong Port, open around the clock, which lawmaker Lau Kwok-fan said he thought was “not enough” to achieve the action plan’s goals.

He suggested that another three border checkpoints – Shenzhen Bay Port, Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and Heung Yuen Wai – should be open 24 hours a day to ease the flow of people and goods.

“It is important for different local governments to enhance communication, remove facilities and artificial barriers at checkpoints, and eliminate the influence of territorial boundaries between Hong Kong and Shenzhen,” Lau said on Tuesday.

He said 24-hour access through any checkpoint would help Hong Kong’s integration into national development and allow it to take part at a higher level.

The plan also said it wanted to increase the bay area’s international competitiveness and take it to a leading position worldwide.

It asked bay area authorities on the mainland side to lure Hong Kong talent to the other cities through measures such as equity incentives, cross-border recognition of occupational qualifications and the provision of private medical insurance.

Guo Wanda, an economist and member of the Chief Executive’s Policy Group, said the action plan would not impede Hong Kong’s efforts to attract talent.

He said it would instead encourage a flow of talent that could bring new capital and industries, as well as innovation, to different cities in the bay area.

Government statistics for November showed about 70,000 people had come to Hong Kong under a variety of talent schemes after the city lost 210,000 workers between early 2019 and the end of 2022.

The document said it wanted more effort to be made to end differential treatment faced by Hong Kong enterprises to better promote the implementation of fair competition policies in the nine mainland bay area cities.

Areas of differential treatment highlighted were bidding and tendering, government procurement and protection of rights and interests, which would only apply to industries not covered in the mainland’s “Negative List” on foreign investment access.

Other priorities listed in the plan include a streamlined visa system for foreign nationals with Hong Kong permanent resident ID cards to conduct scientific, educational, cultural and health exchanges on the mainland.

Witman Hung Wai-man, the co-president of the Qianhai Institute for Innovative Research and a former National People’s Congress deputy, said that although the 24-point document lacked new initiatives, the commission’s high standing would help clear bureaucratic hurdles at municipal levels.

“Even though everything may have been mentioned before, with more specifics [in the document], officials who are driving the policies may become able to advance the initiatives more easily as they will now have a more solid ground,” Hung said.

Zhang Yuge, a council member of semi-official Beijing think tank the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said the action plan could serve as a road map for bay area authorities and help them to come up with firm policies to reach goals.

“Previously, most of the action plan content was carried out in small pilot areas like Nansha in Guangzhou and Qianhai in Shenzhen,” Zhang said.

“Now they are expanded to the whole area.”