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2021 November
Integrate with Greater Bay Area to Showcase Hong Kong’s Strengths

The “14th Five-Year” Plan gives Hong Kong multi-faceted support and tasks, especially to drive the three important platforms for cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. The three platforms are Nansha, Qianhai and Hengqin. Hong Kong must proactively explore ways to combine its strengths with those of the three places, showcasing its strengths and serving the needs of the country.

 

Of the “four hopes” expressed by President Xi Jinping in 2018, CY Leung, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, believes that integration into the big picture of national development is the most important, so Hong Kongers must think about how to do well in this regard.

 

The focus is on “improvement”

Leung said that the 14th Five-Year Plan gives Hong Kong multi-faceted support and tasks, especially to drive the three important platforms for cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. The three platforms are Nansha, Qianhai and Hengqin. Hong Kong must proactively explore ways to combine its strengths with those of the three places, showcasing its strengths and serving the needs of the country by facilitating the interconnectivity of the flow of people, things, capital and information.

 

Leung said further that the “14th Five-Year” Plan supports Hong Kong in improving its status as an international financial, trade and shipping center, with the focus on “improvement”. He explained that “improvement” is not about moving what Hong Kong has been doing to Qianhai. Instead, it means offering new services that are more suitable to the country, while people can thereby earn a higher income and attain a better living standard.

 

The country is a huge market for Hong Kong’s services

Citing the development of shipping services, which has been set out in the Qianhai Plan, as an example, Leung said that Hong Kong’s legal profession can leverage its strengths to offer legal services related to shipping services in Qianhai and extend the scope of services nationwide. The Hong Kong business community can also use its strengths to enhance cooperation with Qianhai to develop new industries such as maritime insurance to serve the entire country. “The country indeed urgently needs professional services that are familiar with maritime law. It does not have to rely on UK and US law firms if Hong Kong’s professionals can meet its needs in this area.”

 

With regard to trade, Leung cited the cooperation between Ningxia and Hong Kong as an example. He noted that as Ningxia’s wine industry is developing rapidly, Hong Kong can become a wine trading hub to help its products sell globally. “We have a unique trade concept in that what we buy is not what Hong Kong needs and what we sell is not what Hong Kong produces.” In his view, this offers boundless trade opportunities.

 

Strengthen Hong Kong’s integration with the Mainland

Leung specifically pointed out that Hong Kong’s integration with the Mainland will not affect the arrangements for “Hong Kong people running Hong Kong” and a high degree of autonomy under the Basic Law, so Hong Kongers really do not need to shy away from this topic. He urged the industrial and commercial sector and all sectors of society to proactively capitalize on the support from the country to stimulate the emergence of new industries and contribute to the integrated development of Hong Kong and the Mainland, especially the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.