Dr Jonathan CHOI Koon-shum (Chairman of the 53rd terms of office) May 2023
CGCC will dedicate itself to bringing the Mainland and Hong Kong business sectors together and plug into Chinese and overseas economic and trade networks. We will galvanize the local business sector into “enhancing Hong Kong's integration with the Mainland and communication with the international world”, so that the city can perform its functional role as a “super connector” more effectively.
During his inspection trip to Guangdong Province last month, President Xi Jinping noted the importance of making the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Greater Bay Area) a strategic fulcrum in the country's new development framework, a demonstration zone of high-quality development, and a pacemaker of Chinese-style modernization. When it comes to the development of the Greater Bay Area, I believe Hong Kong's business sector can give full play to its bridging role, particularly in building an exchange platform for Mainland and overseas businesses that are looking to tap into the Greater Bay Area market. In this regard, CGCC will dedicate itself to bringing the Mainland and Hong Kong business sectors together to jointly identify opportunities and plug into Chinese and overseas economic and trade networks. In tandem with the country's pace of development, we will galvanize the local business sector into "enhancing Hong Kong's integration with the Mainland and communication with the international world”, so that the city can perform its functional role as a “super connector” more effectively.
Acting as a link and a platform
During a reception of a high-level CGCC delegation last month, Huang Kunming, Secretary of CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, praised CGCC and the Hong Kong business sector for being instrumental in deepening Guangdong-Hong Kong cooperation. He said that he hoped to see CGCC continue leveraging its extensive resources and networks to hook up businesses in the two places, so that they can expand into the international markets in concert. He also hoped that riding on Hong Kong's strengths and advantages, the CGCC will direct more businesses to the Greater Bay Area for investment.
CGCC has been a pioneer of the Mainland's reform and opening-up, with our members being among the first to participate in the development of Guangdong. In light of the province's rapid progress toward high-quality growth, Guangdong-Hong Kong cooperation gives new impetus to the deepening of the Greater Bay Area's development. Since the beginning of this year, CGCC has been busily carrying out work that helped promote exchange between the Mainland and other territories. Not only have we organized several business missions to Greater Bay Area cities in the Mainland, but we have also led a delegation to the Canton Fair, visited Yunnan and other Mainland provinces and cities, as well as Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam, and received different government and business bodies from both the Mainland and other countries. Meanwhile, we have been actively promoting the business opportunities lying in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area on different occasions, including our delegation to the Middle East in early May, and we will continue to do so when we visit the Yangtze River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regions and attend the World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention in Bangkok, Thailand later this year. We are also actively planning to bring political and business representatives from the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Japan, Korea and other economic regions to visit the Greater Bay Area, so that they can see the Mainland's impressive development with their own eyes.
Deepening Guangdong-Hong Kong cooperation
Leveraging its edge as the most internationalized city in the Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong can work in sync with Guangdong's high-quality development and facilitate systemic integration of the two places. Such integration, together with the free flow of important factors, can serve as a demonstration of in-depth Guangdong-Hong Kong cooperation, and help promote the high-quality upgrade and transformation of industries in the Greater Bay Area.
Guangdong and Hong Kong can discuss how to further deepen and widen the scope of cooperation in areas like finance and innovation and technology (I&T), such as by tilting certain policies in favor of selected emerging industries to foster their growth, setting up unified financial standards, jointly developing cross-border green financial products and investment and financing services, and promoting the development of a cross-border e-CNY payment network. The two can also explore establishing a management system dedicated to I&T cooperation, with a view to attracting more leading I&T corporations, talents, capital and technology to the Greater Bay Area, and creating favorable conditions for the area's high-quality development.
Promoting balanced regional development
While on his inspection trip in Guangdong, President Xi expressed concern about the imbalance in the developments of the eastern, western and northern parts of the province compared to its southern part. The provincial authorities are now redoubling their efforts to narrow the regional development gap. Hong Kong businesses with investments in the province can in fact play a leading role to support and help with the orderly migration of industries in the Pearl River Delta to east, west and north Guangdong.
The truth is, the east, west and north of Guangdong each has their own strengths, which assure the supply of raw materials and resources for the development of advanced manufacturing and high-tech industries in the Greater Bay Area. The Greater Bay Area can also strive for greater integration with the infrastructure in eastern and western Guangdong by actively building transportation nodes and roads, so that these regions can connect with the Greater Bay Area's industrial transformation, and help bear and disperse the pressure of passenger and freight traffic in the Greater Bay Area.
When John Lee, Chief Executive of the HKSAR, led a delegation of the HKSAR Government and the Legislative Council to the Greater Bay Area last month, he said that strengthened understanding and communication between the Area and Hong Kong lays the foundation for more efficient and concrete cooperation in the future. CGCC will actively support the authorities and business sectors in the Guangdong and Hong Kong to strengthen connection and cooperation. Joining hands with Guangdong, we will strive to deepen the development of the Greater Bay Area, and tell well the stories of China, the Greater Bay Area, and Guangdong-Hong Kong cooperation.
