By Tu Haiming

Since March, government officials of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region have been seen visiting the Chinese mainland on a number of occasions. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu first led a team of eight bureau chiefs to meet eight central government officials in Beijing, followed by a trip to Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan and Guangzhou with a delegation consisting of some 80 Legislative Council members and principal officials. For Hong Kong, increased exchanges between the city and the mainland signal a faster pace of Hong Kong’s integration into national development.

Whereas dovetailing with national development covers a broad spectrum of subjects, Hong Kong can work on the following as a starter.

Taking a leaf out of the mainland’s book

Addressing Hong Kong’s deep-seated housing problems will necessitate a quicker pace in public housing construction as well as in the elimination of substandard subdivided units. The incumbent HKSAR administration, though committed to this cause, hasn’t yet come up with a panacea.

In early April, Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin led representatives from the Housing Bureau, the Housing Department and the Architectural Services Department to visit a fast-tracked housing project in Shenzhen. The project is being built expeditiously by adopting the modular integrated construction method as a concrete construction approach that has significantly shortened the construction time. Her recent trip to Beijing, which included visits to local affordable housing projects and exchanges with experts from the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, has opened up more ideas for Hong Kong’s housing problems.

Ho’s trips showed us how Hong Kong can learn from the mainland’s experiences. Take affordable housing as an example. The mainland, which spans a vast territory of hinterland, builds an array of affordable housing projects catered to regional conditions. If HKSAR government officials dig deeper, they will for sure discover a lot of mainland experiences that are useful for Hong Kong.

Hong Kong can draw on the experiences of the mainland in many other aspects. After all, livelihood issues in the world’s second-largest economy are far more complex than those in Hong Kong; in tackling their problems, mainland authorities have accumulated lots of experience.

HK can gain through strengths of the mainland

China’s Shenzhou XVI mission recruited the participation of research teams from Hong Kong. Some research teams from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University worked together with mainland experts to develop a number of space instruments that aided the nation’s lunar exploration, Mars mission and other space projects.

In advanced industries like aerospace, Hong Kong lacks the capacity to work alone. With the help of the country, however, Hong Kong’s research teams have gained valuable experience that has helped bring their expertise to the next level.

Similarly, the country also provides a springboard for Hong Kong to succeed in many other fields. For instance, China’s mega infrastructure projects are in a class of their own. Now that Hong Kong is planning to undertake land reclamation projects, it can leverage the mainland’s state-of-art technology in construction to speed up the land creation process and avoid taking the longer route.

There also exists complementarity between the high-end manufacturing industries of the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta on one side and Hong Kong’s leading research and development capacity in certain areas on the other side. Hong Kong could harness the mainland’s high-end manufacturing sector to commercialize its R&D results, thereby forging a more complete and stable industry value chain.

Integration should be promoted in every field wherein the strengths of the mainland can make up for Hong Kong’s deficiencies. Hong Kong can promote cooperation with mainland partners in strengthening its weak links, while seeking policy support from the central government in strengthening its edges.

Achieving multiplier effect by integrating resources

The HKSAR government recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Guangdong province on promoting cooperation in elderly care services.

Whereas Guangdong boasts abundant land and human resources, Hong Kong is experienced in elderly care services and management. Combining the best of both sides will provide an optimal solution to meet the increasing demand for elderly care services in Hong Kong.

Joining hands with Guangdong will help Hong Kong enhance its stature as an international aviation hub. The city is connected with more than 220 countries and regions via air routes that witness more than 1,100 inbound and outbound flights every day. While Hong Kong is rich in manpower for tourism and aviation management, land scarcity renders it impossible to build a larger airport. Guangdong’s abundant land resources, particularly in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai, open the doors to cooperation that will make a bigger “cake” for Hong Kong’s aviation industry.

The process of integration is also the process of combining each other’s superior resources. Pushing ahead with Hong Kong’s integration with the nine mainland cities in the GBA is the first step to promote integration into national development.

Joining hands to expand international market share

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) entered a new stage of implementation on June 2, forming the world’s largest free trade bloc in terms of population and economic prowess.

Hong Kong will hopefully join RCEP this year. Its membership will help local corporations reduce operating costs and tap overseas markets more easily. It will also allow Hong Kong to better help mainland enterprises to go global and enable other members to use the city as a portal to access the mainland market, thus consolidating Hong Kong’s international standing as a trade center by strengthening its intermediary role within the bloc.

The concept of integration into national development not only refers to the mutual access of the Hong Kong and mainland markets, but also cooperation between the two sides to expand their presence in the global economy. In addition to the RCEP, the Belt and Road Initiative is also an arena for both sides to demonstrate to the world what they are capable of. Joining hands to the international market is a new form of integration.

The author is vice-chairman of the Committee on Liaison with Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Overseas Chinese of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and chairman of the Hong Kong New Era Development Thinktank.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of Bauhinia Magazine.

Source: China Daily