Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor arrives at the Legislative Council Complex on Thursday to answer questions from lawmakers on her fourth Policy Address. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)
Deeper integration and cooperation with the Chinese mainland, as highlighted in Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s fourth Policy Address, is the key to steering the special administrative region out of its economic quandary toward a bright future, a business leader and a scholar say.
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One of the salient points of the address is its focus on integration into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, said veteran entrepreneur Jonathan Choi Koon-shum, a Standing Committee member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the country’s top political advisory body.
It (the Hong Kong government) has broken away from its old mode of thinking that limited itself to ‘the boundary of Shenzhen River’
Jonathan Choi Koon-shum,
Standing Committee member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference
The measures include enhancing connectivity of financial markets between Hong Kong and the mainland, participation in the operation and development of Zhuhai Airport and the launch of the Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Scheme.
“This is the key for Hong Kong, as a small economy with a population of only 7 million, in reviving its past glory,” said Choi, who’s also chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.
As one of the major platforms for Hong Kong’s innovation and technology development, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Co-operation Zone, which comprises the Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Zone and Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park at the Lok Ma Chau Loop, is of great importance.
Lam said the SAR government is exploring the feasibility of allowing Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp to lease and manage certain areas of the Innovation and Technology Zone in Futian district of Shenzhen, so that institutes and enterprises which are interested in operating in the Bay Area can establish a presence in Shenzhen before the completion of the first batch of buildings in Hong Kong.
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Praising the government for making breakthroughs in innovative thinking, Choi said it has broken away from its old mode of thinking that limited itself to “the boundary of Shenzhen River”.
“This year’s policy blueprint shares the same spirit as that of the just-concluded Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China,” Chan Ching-chuen, Hong Kong’s first academician at the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Engineering, said.
He described the fifth plenary session and the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) as unprecedented because they attached “unprecedented” importance to innovation and technology, paid “unprecedented” attention to scientists and unlocked “unprecedented” opportunities.
Riding high on the country’s undertakings and goals, Lam’s Policy Address reinforced the theme of integration in a sign of Hong Kong’s determination to play a part in the next big story unfolding on the mainland, said Chan, who is also founding president of the World Electric Vehicles Association and an honorary professor at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the University of Hong Kong.
“This also well explains why Lam decided to postpone her Policy Address to seek the central government’s support and bilateral collaboration with neighboring cities like Shenzhen,” said Chan, who defended the decision as “reasonable” and “thoughtful”.
“Postponing the Policy Address, which was to have been delivered in October, should be seen as a bold move for Hong Kong to reach out and seek cooperation in a more proactive manner.”
With Hong Kong going all out to join with Shenzhen as the twin “core engines” of the Bay Area, the SAR cannot afford to miss the boat once again or else it would be marginalized in national development, Chan warned.
Edith Lu contributed to this story.
