Three prominent Hong Kong politicians representing different sectors share with China Daily their perspectives on the country’s rapid development over the past decade, and consider the ways in which such progress has benefited the SAR, and how the city can contribute to national development.
1. The Communist Party of China’s 20th National Congress will begin soon. How do you view the development of the country and the city in the past decade? What about in your sector? Which changes have impressed you the most?
Regina: In the past decade, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, China has reached superpower status by dint of its strong economy and rapid technological advancement. China is now the world’s largest trading entity and second-largest economy. I am particularly impressed by the stunning progress China has made in its space program, in particular its space station, crewed expeditions to the moon, Mars, and interplanetary missions to outer space.
Kennedy: In the past 10 years, our country’s economy has developed rapidly. Looking at the foreign trade import and export statistics, the total value of China’s foreign trade imports and exports in 2012 was $3.87 trillion, which by 2021 had nearly doubled to $6.05 trillion, reaching a historic peak. This achievement has been hard-earned, especially in recent years, with the changing international situation and the prevalence of trade protectionism, coupled with the impact of the pandemic, and the complex environment in which the global supply chain has become distorted. Yet, China’s foreign trade imports and exports have still maintained a high growth trend. This shows the huge driving force and broad space for China’s economic development.
The import and export industry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, which I serve, has also benefited from the development of China’s foreign trade. For example, the total import and export trade of Hong Kong in 2012 was HK$7.35 trillion ($936 billion), and in 2021 it reached HK$10.27 trillion in just 10 years! Moreover, what impresses me most is that Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland have trade and investment promotion, customs clearance facilitation, e-commerce, transparency of laws and regulations, commodity inspection and quarantine, food safety, quality standards, intellectual property protection, brand cooperation and other aspects related to trade. The cooperation has also made many important breakthroughs. In particular, in recent years, the country has continuously proposed updating the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement to help Hong Kong’s import and export trade industry gradually develop from a relatively simple entrepot trade to a collection of various trade models, an integrated economy of trade and operations. It can be said that it is much more convenient for Hong Kong to do business with the mainland now, and the development prospects and space are broader.
Dennis: For the past decade, China has achieved continuous economic growth and substantial development in advancing urbanization, environment protection, technology, education, people’s income and overall quality of life. In the past 10 years, development in the HKSAR has come along in leaps and bounds under the constitutional principle of “one country, two systems”.
China’s medical and healthcare industry has experienced tremendous transformation in the past 10 years. The past decade has seen deepened reform of the medical and health system and gradual resolution of long-lasting issues such as access to and affordability of medical services. China has implemented a national strategy for addressing an aging population, improved integrated medical and elderly care services, and finally refined the one-child policy into a three-child policy. China is participating in global health governance at a deeper level and in a broader scope, taking concrete steps to push forward health cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.
Among all the positive changes, I am mostly impressed by the continuous development of traditional Chinese medicine through innovation and modern medical technology. Research and development in TCM is a key segment of development for Zhuhai city’s Hengqin. The capacity of the community-based TCM services has made notable improvements; now TCM medication and services are increasingly accessible.
Another phenomenon that impresses me deeply is the overall quality of healthcare workers and enhanced medical technology. By 2021, there were nearly 14 million health professionals on the mainland. Now 50 percent of the mainland’s hospitals are capable of performing complicated surgeries. The average medical diagnosis and treatment rate as well as the hospitalization rate have gradually approached the average level of developed countries.
2. Poverty alleviation has been one of the key aims of the CPC’s work over the past decade, and these efforts have paid off now that the mainland has ridded itself of absolute poverty. What can Hong Kong learn from the mainland’s poverty-alleviation work when it is embroiled in a widening wealth gap?
Regina: Hong Kong can learn many lessons from the Chinese mainland’s poverty-alleviation work.
First, you cannot alleviate, let alone eliminate, poverty when you adopt the concept of “relative poverty”. Under this concept, half of the median household income is regarded as the poverty benchmark, and all those whose incomes are below this benchmark are regarded as poor. This definition does not identify the poor and needy in our society sufficiently accurately. Second, our limited resources must be applied more precisely to help those who live in the most abject conditions and who need the greatest help, such as the inhabitants of subdivided cubicles. Thirdly, the government must intervene when there is a market failure, or where the rent-seeking behavior of monopolistic or oligopolistic firms creates too much hardship for the people. The government must not allow a widening health gap to become a source of social instability.
Kennedy: According to the latest report released by the Hong Kong SAR government, the number of poor people in Hong Kong has increased to 1.653 million, with a poverty rate of 23.6 percent, a record high.
According to the latest estimates, the Gini coefficient in Hong Kong is likely to surpass 0.539, which is also a record high. These figures show that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening, seriously affecting the harmony and stability of society and hindering further development in the future.
Therefore, I think that although Hong Kong is a capitalist society with a free economic system, the SAR government must establish a people-oriented governance concept and strive to share the fruits of economic development with all residents, so as to maintain the long-term prosperity of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong SAR government must learn from the experience of poverty alleviation on the mainland. First, it must set a realistic poverty line according to the specific conditions of Hong Kong society, and designate a plan to reduce poverty within five years. At the same time, it is necessary to encourage the wealthy to share more of their wealth, and for the government to achieve a fair and reasonable redistribution of wealth through sound taxation and other positive adjustment methods. The government should invest more resources appropriately to assist residents below the poverty line, and aim to gradually get rid of poverty and improve their lives.
Dennis: The mainland’s approach to poverty reduction has been based on two pillars, according to a joint report by the Ministry of Finance, the Development Research Center of the State Council and the World Bank in 2022.
The first was a broad-based economic transformation to open new economic opportunities and raise average incomes. The second was the recognition that targeted support was needed to alleviate persistent poverty; support was initially provided to areas disadvantaged by geography and the lack of opportunities, and later to individual households.
I think both approaches are highly referential for Hong Kong to battle the widening wealth gap in the city.
First, Hong Kong should perhaps consider developing a new industry based on technology and innovation along with its traditional pillar industries (i.e., finance, construction, shipping and tourism). According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the Chinese mainland added 11.33 million urban jobs in the first 10 months of 2021 alone. As technology and innovation is the first driving force to lead the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), if Hong Kong can grasp the opportunity of developing its own technology and innovation industry, then more jobs will be created in Hong Kong.
Second, Hong Kong should identify underprivileged groups for targeted support programs, such as people with disabilities, new immigrants, ethnic minorities and the elderly.
3. President Xi Jinping’s report at the 19th CPC National Congress pointed out that the country has entered a new era of development and the Party is striving to build a moderately prosperous society. What role do you think the Hong Kong SAR, and especially your sector, could play in the country’s blueprint for the new era?
Regina: Hong Kong can play four roles in support of President Xi’s vision of a moderately prosperous China in a new era of development: First, by maintaining its separate systems and unique advantages, Hong Kong can continue to showcase to the world the success of “one country, two systems”. Second, Hong Kong should assist the nation in realizing its goal of national unification through peaceful means. Third, Hong Kong can continue to act as a buffer area for the Chinese mainland to engage and communicate with the rest of the world. Fourthly, Hong Kong can mobilize its extensive overseas network, both in Western countries and Asia, to tell the true story about China’s renaissance and the Hong Kong SAR’s rebirth after the riots of 2019.
Dennis: With Hong Kong’s unique global strategic position, the SAR could continue to play its role in introducing external investment and talents, and in absorbing internationally-advanced technologies and managerial expertise for the mainland.
Hong Kong has excellent medical expertise and internationally recognized clinical testing technologies. I believe under a more supportive policy framework, Hong Kong could play a leading role in bringing world-class medical care service and management to the Greater Bay Area and the rest of the mainland. The SAR can potentially contribute significantly to educating and training the next generation of elite medical personnel for the mainland in the new era.
4. What do you think closer integration with the Chinese mainland over the past 10 years has brought to your industry? Looking forward, how do you perceive it will go?
Regina: Closer integration with the mainland in the past decade has greatly expanded the markets for Hong Kong’s services, strengthened Hong Kong’s position as a global financial center, and augmented Hong Kong’s talent pool. Going forward, further integration, particularly with the GBA, would vastly expand Hong Kong’s space for development and jump-start Hong Kong’s emerging technological industries.
There are a lot of synergies between Hong Kong and the nine mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area. When the free movement of people and goods has returned to normality, collectively, Hong Kong and the other cities in the GBA could combine their strengths to become a powerful locomotive for growth.
Kennedy: Since July 1, 1997, when Hong Kong returned to the embrace of the motherland and became a special administrative region under the direct jurisdiction of the central government, the city has been playing an indispensable and unique role in the country’s modernization drive and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In recent years, the country has launched a grand plan for high-quality development of the GBA. As a metropolitan city in the region with the most international integration, the most active economy and the best business environment, Hong Kong can serve as a high-level role model for opening up to the outside world. As far as the import and export industry is concerned, I believe that the closer integration with the mainland over the past 10 years has brought broader development space and more opportunities for the development of the industry.
Therefore, in the future, we must continue to make full use of our unique advantage of being backed by the mainland, the world’s second-largest economy, take full integration into the overall national development as the guiding ideology, seize the huge business opportunities brought about by the country’s Belt and Road Initiative, and make full use of the original international trade networks to carry out all-around and multichannel flexible operations, and strive to solve deep-rooted problems such as lack of real economic support, high costs, and inadequate innovation. At the same time, closer integration will promote the development of innovative technology and the real economy, accelerate the pace of economic transformation, and make use of Hong Kong’s strengths to solve the country’s economic needs.
Dennis: Closer integration with the mainland for the past 10 years has brought unprecedented opportunities of development for leading players in Hong Kong’s medical and healthcare industry. Take my own company, C-MER, as an example, which opened the mainland’s first Hong Kong wholly-owned hospital under the CEPA in 2013 in Shenzhen, which has since been regarded as one of the two prime examples of successful Shenzhen and Hong Kong integration in medical and healthcare services (the other one being the University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Hospital). With 10 years’ development on the mainland, C-MER now operates 12 hospitals and 17 clinics in 10 cities on the mainland, including all four first-tier cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Looking forward, I hope the integration will be more mutually beneficial. Earlier this year there was heated debate in the Legislative Council on whether Hong Kong should allow mainland-trained graduates to register and work as doctors in Hong Kong. I hope Hong Kong will be more open-minded and proactive in attracting medical talents with a mainland background to facilitate deeper integration and alleviate the shortage of manpower in its medical professional team.
5. For the past 10 years, many favorable policies have been rolled out for Hong Kong and Macao residents. Is your industry one of the beneficiaries? What role do you think such policies play in helping your sector grow stronger?
Regina: In the past decade, the central authorities have rolled out many policies in the financial area which have catapulted Hong Kong to global financial hub status. These include the Stock Connect, linking Hong Kong’s equity markets with those in Shanghai and Shenzhen; the Bond Connect; and the Wealth Management Connect. Hong Kong has become the largest offshore renminbi pool and a global hub for RMB clearing and settlement. With more innovations to facilitate the cross-border movement of the RMB and use of the e-RMB, Hong Kong can contribute more to the internationalization of the RMB. Hong Kong can also do more to link mainland enterprises to the global capital markets.
Kennedy: Over the past decade, a number of policies have been introduced to benefit Hong Kong and Macao residents, and the import and export industry is one of the beneficiaries. For example, the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China has been working with various localities and relevant departments to actively promote the innovation and development of cross-border e-commerce. All nine mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area have been fully covered. According to the latest statistics from the customs, in the first quarter of 2022, cross-border e-commerce imports and exports amounted to 434.5 billion yuan ($60.65 billion). The import and export of cross-border e-commerce in various comprehensive pilot areas in the Greater Bay Area has increased by 23 percent. The Ministry of Commerce also stated that the next step is to continue to support the Greater Bay Area to conduct pilot projects, explore and innovate new models of trade with Hong Kong and Macao, and build cross-border e-commerce, industrial chains and ecosystems to promote the high-quality development of trade in the Greater Bay Area. All these have provided a lot of development opportunities for our import and export industry to actively respond to the changes in the new international economic and trade environment.
Dennis: Hong Kong’s medical and healthcare industry has benefited deeply from a number of favorable policies rolled out over the past 10 years. One example is the measures for using Hong Kong-registered drugs and medical devices used in Hong Kong public hospitals in the GBA, a pilot program launched by the National Medical Products Administration that allows designated public and private hospitals in major Guangdong cities to import Hong Kong- and Macao-approved products. In August 2021, C-MER Zhuhai Eye Hospital became the first and so far the only designated eye hospital under the measures. On March 27, 2022, our Zhuhai Hospital held a launch ceremony for the first clinical use of imported drugs in Zhuhai, where we performed the first dose of Beovu on the mainland.
These policies are indeed critical for Hong Kong’s medical and healthcare industry to enter the mainland market and grow stronger in the region, without which we cannot fully exert our advantages in providing medical services of an international standard with cutting-edge technology, novel drugs and Hong Kong-style management.
6. What are your expectations for Hong Kong’s participation in and contribution to the nation’s development in the upcoming decade?
Regina: President Xi has, in his keynote speech in Hong Kong on July 1, urged Hong Kong to maintain its unique position and advantages, including strengthening its position as global financial, shipping and trading hubs, and maintaining its common law system. Hong Kong should continue to make the most of its unique systems and international linkages to support our nation’s peaceful and irreversible rise in the world.
Kennedy: The next 10 years will be an important stage in the “two-step” strategy. By 2035, our country will basically achieve socialist modernization on the basis of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-around way. As President Xi Jinping pointed out in his important speech on July 1 when he visited Hong Kong this year: “On the country’s journey toward building a modern socialist country in all respects and realizing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the central government believes that Hong Kong will make great contributions.” It is believed that the Hong Kong SAR will continue to maintain its status as an international financial, shipping and trade center in the next 10 years, maintain a free, open and regulated business environment, maintain the common law system, expand smooth and convenient international connections, and become the most modern and open economy in China. On the other hand, it will also be fully integrated into the overall situation of national development, providing all kinds of support needed for the country to continue its modernization drive, and provide indispensable support for the country to successfully achieve the strategic goal of the first step.
Dennis: Hong Kong has contributed greatly to the process of the nation’s economic reform and opening-up. The SAR serves as a bridge for implementing the nation’s Belt and Road Initiative, and helps the mainland shift and reshape its growth model. It is crucial that Hong Kong continues to expand its unique position in connecting the mainland with the rest of the world. At the same time, Hong Kong should evolve from a mere connector to a more proactive participant, making the most of the mainland’s vast market and progress opportunities.
For example, Hong Kong has unique advantages to play a leading role in the innovation and technology development of the GBA. It can provide diversified and international financing channels for the new-economy tech companies in the region, then sell the high-tech products made in the GBA to the overseas market by leveraging its status as a free port and independent customs zone.
Furthermore, Hong Kong can play a demonstrable role in the construction of a business environment for the mainland. In the nation’s process of accelerating the construction of a world-class business environment, Hong Kong can provide valuable experience on the operation mechanism of a market economy.
All in all, I believe Hong Kong’s unique role in the nation’s development will be strengthened and further enhanced in the new era.
