Hong Kong is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its return to the motherland. This auspicious occasion coincides with a historical moment that marks the city’s gradual transition toward good governance and prosperity. To enhance the special administrative region’s prospect for socioeconomic development, the city will need to buckle down to two major undertakings: tackling the deep-seated social problems, and boosting its competitiveness by achieving new breakthroughs. Both endeavors require the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, and indeed the whole society, to have a “big picture” of both national development and global changes when planning Hong Kong’s own development strategies. That means Hong Kong must do well in the following areas.
First, Hong Kong must always have a good grasp of the country’s national development strategy. The national 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) mandates that reform and innovation will be leveraged as the major driving force to accelerate the formation of the proposed “dual circulation” development pattern, under which the internal and external markets boost each other, with the domestic market serving as the mainstay. This is a major undertaking to overhaul and optimize the country’s economic development model and strategy for many years. It will be instrumental to attaining a more efficient, more equitable, more sustainable, more secure and more value-added development model for China, and conducive to promoting the development of the global economy as well.
The common thread running through the national 14th Five-Year Plan is the pursuit of new milestones, new concepts and new strategies for the country’s development. These new endeavors are intended to respond to certain national issues the central authorities are grappling with. For instance, innovation is intended to address the sluggish economic growth; green concepts are ways to facilitate the harmonic coexistence of nature and mankind; opening-up is to establish links between domestic and foreign markets to achieve mutual benefits. The national development plan is crucial to Hong Kong’s socioeconomic development and highly relevant to the benefits of Hong Kong residents. The SAR government will need to strategize on how to align the city’s development strategies with the country’s new development models, concepts and strategies articulated in the 14th Five-Year Plan so that the city can put to good use its strengths to meet the country’s various needs in the new phase of national development, and benefits from the process.
Second, Hong Kong must expedite its integration into national development. The central government has pledged its staunch backing for Hong Kong in reinforcing its competitive edge in the 14th Five-Year Plan, which spells out the continued support for the city to enhance its status as an international financial, logistics and trade center, strengthen its standing as a global offshore renminbi business hub, and as an international assets and risks management center. Furthermore, the central government also pledges for the first time its support for Hong Kong to develop into an international innovation and technology hub, to establish itself as a center for international legal and dispute resolution services in the Asia-Pacific region, to emerge as a regional intellectual property trading center, to grow high-end and high-value-added services industries, and to develop into a hub for arts and cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world. The diversification of Hong Kong’s economic development suggests the city will be in a better position to meet the country’s needs by leveraging its uniqueness and strengths.
Aligning with national development is not a mere pep talk, as it is the key to ensuring Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability, as well as the solution to the city’s development bottlenecks. For Hong Kong to dovetail with the national strategies articulated in the 14th Five-Year Plan, it needs to seek alignment not only in policies on industrial chains and markets but also on concepts, mindsets and mentality. In his speech at a symposium on the first anniversary of the implementation of the National Security Law for Hong Kong, Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, emphasized that the SAR’s administrators must strictly adhere to the “one country, two systems” framework in the governance of Hong Kong; they should be adept at resolving various deep-seated problems besetting Hong Kong’s development; good at enriching the lives of the people; capable of uniting all sectors; and well-versed in the areas of their duties.
Third, Hong Kong needs to have a good understanding of the shifting global situation. Being a small open economy, the city is vulnerable to global political and economic shock waves. It should have a clear picture of the three major phenomena of the current global situation. First, nationalism and populism are rising in many parts of the world, threatening free trade and international economic exchanges; and Hong Kong is also subject to Washington’s political maneuvers aimed at containing China. Second, the economic center of gravity is shifting swifter toward the East. China’s economy has grown at an annual rate of 6.7 percent over the past five years, contributing more than one-third of global economic growth. Other emerging Asian economies like ASEAN and India also grew by an average of 6 percent per year, continuing to contribute to the world economic growth. Coupled with developed economies such as Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong in the region, Asia will play an increasingly prominent role in the global economy. Hong Kong should strategize on how to play a bigger part in the new global economic paradigm. Third, innovation and technology are increasingly becoming the core competitiveness of economies. The application and popularization of innovative technologies such as communication interfaces, artificial intelligence, and big data will not only give birth to new industries and a sharing economy across industries, sectors and regions but also subvert the traditional asset- and capital-intensive business models. This brings about opportunities for healthy competition and the transformation of business models. Novel technologies also lower the threshold for entrepreneurship and breed more cost-effective business concepts, products, and services. To develop into an international innovation and technology hub, Hong Kong will need to have a sense of urgency to gather resources and make every needed effort to march toward this goal.
If Hong Kong is to seize the opportunities to bring its socioeconomic development to a new level, it has to have a good grasp of not only the national development strategy but also the new global economic and political paradigm. For instance, one of the major undertakings in the current national development strategy is the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which is the most internationalized region in China, boasting a large population, massive land resources, rapidly rising economic strength and a huge market size. It will provide Hong Kong with a new development platform for its professional services and high-end, high value-added services. It’s no exaggeration to say the GBA will propel the city’s socioeconomic development to a new level.
The National Security Law and the revamped electoral system are the two bulwarks of Hong Kong’s favorable business environment. While new challenges are likely to emerge, Hong Kong, with the staunch support of the country, can still enjoy immeasurable opportunities. It will, however, ultimately hinge on whether the SAR government and every sector of society can see the “big picture” and come together as one force championing the city’s further success.
The author is a current affairs commentator.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
