The release of Premier Li Qiang’s Government Work Report, together with the summary of the draft 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) on Thursday, offers an important opportunity to better understand the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s role in the country’s next stage of development.

In both documents, the language on Hong Kong moves beyond mere “integration” into the country’s overall development and introduces a more proactive expectation — that Hong Kong should also be “contributing” to it — with one sentence reading, “We should support Hong Kong and Macao in better integrating into and contributing to the country’s overall development.”

For years, Hong Kong’s policy conversation has been framed around “integration”. The emphasis has largely been on aligning with national strategy, connecting more deeply with the Chinese-mainland economy, and embedding the city more firmly within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. That agenda was necessary, and remains so. But “integration” alone is still confined as a more passive tone: Hong Kong adapts, Hong Kong follows, Hong Kong fits in.

To “contribute” means Hong Kong cannot be content with being purely a beneficiary of national planning. It must become an active source of strategic value. The city must ask not only how national development can support Hong Kong, but how Hong Kong can offer value to national priorities in concrete and strategic ways.

The real challenge is whether Hong Kong is prepared to elevate its own planning logic to the level of national strategy.

That means moving beyond an overly narrow understanding of the city’s role. While the Greater Bay Area remains Hong Kong’s most immediate strategic platform, it should not become the limit of the city’s imagination.

If Hong Kong is truly to “contribute to the country’s overall development”, then its policy thinking must extend beyond southern China. In other words, when formulating Hong Kong’s strategic development plan, such as Hong Kong’s own upcoming five-year plan, we need to extend our reach by considering not only the Greater Bay Area but also other major economic belts and areas like the clusters of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Yangtze Economic Belt.

Hong Kong’s unique value should also come into sharper focus. The city’s role is not to replicate what mainland cities already do well, but to offer what few others in the mainland can match with the same depth: international finance, offshore capital connectivity, legal and arbitration services, regulatory credibility, professional intermediation, and a long-developed capacity to operate at the intersection of the mainland and the broader world.

Hong Kong has to be a stakeholder, a contributor and a beneficiary of national development. In response to the 15th Five-Year Plan, Hong Kong can build upon its true value, and leverage its internationally compatible standards, professional expertise and connectivity to the broader world

At the same time, the city’s contribution should not be understood only in conventional economic terms. Hong Kong should be serious about serving the country’s broader development agenda. It must also think more ambitiously about emerging strategic areas stated in the 15th Five-Year Plan, where it can add and contribute distinctive values, whether in the space economy, cultural and creative industries, technology commercialization, or innovations in governance and social policy.

As emphasized by Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, at an early symposium on upholding Hong Kong’s executive-led system, Hong Kong has to be a stakeholder, a contributor and a beneficiary of national development. In response to the 15th Five-Year Plan, Hong Kong can build upon its true value, and leverage its internationally compatible standards, professional expertise and connectivity to the broader world.

The author is president of Our Hong Kong Foundation and a council member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.