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Thursday, May 24, 2018, 09:21
Risk-taking pioneers will strike gold in Bay Area
By Paul Yueng
Thursday, May 24, 2018, 09:21 By Paul Yueng

Long-awaited details on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area plan are expected to be released this month, according to media reports, as the State Council is giving the plan its final review. The anticipated new policies will facilitate Bay Area development and the flow of factors, especially people. Are we ready?

A survey by the Hong Kong Youth Power Association, which interviewed 878 local young people from March to last month, showed 58 percent of respondents would not consider working or living in Chinese mainland cities covered by the plan. The survey did raise concern as 58 percent is quite a majority, assuming the study is reliable. The passive attitude of the youth is worth studying further, given the high proportion.

Moreover, those who were unwilling to work or live in Bay Area cities were asked to choose from a range of reasons — 57 percent said they did not know what the plan was all about. The Bay Area covers the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, and nine cities in Guangdong province, including first-tier cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Indeed, the Bay Area plan is topical since it was first mentioned in Premier Li Keqiang’s annual Government Work Report delivered at the start of the National People’s Congress last year. In the report, Li said authorities would move on with the Bay Area concept, which means the plan had been elevated from a regional to a national strategic level. The lack of understanding among the youth reveals that recent discussions have mainly focused on the planning level, which the youth might think they are not directly involved in.

This is not the end of the story. Among survey respondents who were not considering working or living in Bay Area cities, 42 percent said they did not want to be too far away from Hong Kong. But according to the survey, 61 percent of young people said they would be more willing to work on the Chinese mainland if there was a government-backed startup fund or housing subsidy. That suggests: Those young people believe Bay Area living costs are still too high for them, and working in the Bay Area implies an opportunity cost they are not willing to pay.

Such mentality stems from their failure to see the Bay Area’s potential. Let’s look back to the history; the Bay Area idea officially first surfaced in a State Council policy paper in March last year. It suggests the main cities in the region — including Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Macao — have specific advantages and should be more complementary in future. The plan, like other plans of city clusters such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area and the Yangtze River Economic Belt, is to foster greater economic cooperation and infrastructure development in the city cluster. The all-round cooperation among the cities will create abundant career opportunities for young people in the region.

Perhaps we need not be too worried at present about 58 percent of respondents lacking enthusiasm toward the Bay Area but consider the 42 percent who could well be the region’s pioneers. Indeed, the flow of talent is vital to the Bay Area’s success. The government is expected to provide more favorable policies to those willing to contribute to Bay Area development. What is more, Tencent CEO Pony Ma Huateng has proposed creating an electronic identification system for Bay Area residents to facilitate mobile payments and social life within the region. 

We can expect there will be a new identity for people in the region in the future. Just as Jonathan Choi Koon-shum, chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, noted: “We will no longer be Hong Kong people, but Greater Bay Area people.” Some critics took issue with such an idea on political grounds but the new identity will undoubtedly be a privileged pass rather than a political status. By virtue of the first-mover advantage, those pioneers will certainly benefit the most from the Bay Area project. 

With the central government’s strong support, the Bay Area is expected to produce the greatest gross domestic product among all bay area city clusters worldwide. It is likely to become an advanced manufacturing center, as well as a key global hub of innovation, finance, shipping and trade by 2030. Those who fear taking risks had better heed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s advice: “The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” Opportunity favors only the prepared mind. Are we prepared to be the pioneers?

The author is research officer of the One Country Two Systems Research Institute.

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