Business leader Jonathan Choi says under a new five-year plan, Hong Kong must work with Shenzhen to transform the Bay Area into ‘Asia’s Wall Street and Silicon Valley’. Edith Lu and Sophie He report from Hong Kong.
Hong Kong, as one of the world’s freest markets, will see its competitive edge sharpened with fresh opportunities granted under the nation’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), enabling the city to further integrate into the new development landscape.
And by joining forces with Shenzhen — the nation’s technology and innovation powerhouse — Hong Kong can turn the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area into “Asia’s Wall Street and Silicon Valley”, says Jonathan Choi Koon-shum, a veteran Hong Kong entrepreneur and member of the country’s top political advisory body.
In an exclusive interview with China Daily, he summarized the blueprint unveiled two weeks ago at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Communist Party of China’s 19th Central Committee in two key words: innovation and opening-up.
The symbol of the ‘dual circulation’ development pattern looks like the infinity symbol; Hong Kong’s position is in the middle
Jonathan Choi Koon-shum, national political adviser
Undoubtedly, Hong Kong will make a great contribution to the process, says Choi, a Standing Committee member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
According to the communique of the fifth plenum, China will emerge more self-reliant in science and technology with the goal of becoming a world leader in innovation.
“China’s technological progress has been suppressed by other countries in the past few years. So we have to develop science and technology with self-reliance. That’s why innovation was valued at the fifth plenum,” says Choi.
Han Wenxiu, deputy director of the Office of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission, has pledged that the central government will extend further support for Hong Kong to consolidate its strengths and to develop into an international scientific and technological innovation hub during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.
In the past decade, Hong Kong has been actively campaigning to be a part of the country’s five-year plans. The special administrative region, along with Macao, was officially brought into the country’s overall development in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15). Under the following 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), Beijing helped the SAR elevate its status as a global financial, trading and transport hub, as well as a world legal, arbitration and mediation services center.
As chairman of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Entrepreneurs Union, Choi is adamant that Hong Kong has to develop with the Bay Area and join with Shenzhen to become a global hub for scientific and technological innovation.
“Hong Kong’s status as an international financial pivot is recognized worldwide. There’s no doubt it’s like the ‘Wall Street of the East’,” he says.
“With world-class universities boasting strong research and development capability, Hong Kong has attracted all kinds of talent. It has abundant resources in the upstream and downstream sectors,” he says.
The entrepreneur expects Shenzhen, the region’s technology and innovation fulcrum, to industrialize scientific projects, turning innovative ideas into reality on the back of the huge Chinese mainland market.
A typical project for collaboration between both cities is the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Co-operation Zone, which comprises the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park at the Lok Ma Chau Loop and the neighboring Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Zone just north of the Shenzhen River.
Jonathan Choi Koon-shum expounds the fresh opportunities for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as the country embarks on a new phase of development under its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25). (PARKER ZHENG / CHINA DAILY)
Innovation synergy
The project is seen as a key base for cooperation in scientific research. According to the SAR government, the park at the Lok Ma Chau Loop will be Hong Kong’s largest innovation and technology platform — three times the size of Hong Kong Science Park in the New Territories. It is also poised to become a major infrastructure project to promote R&D and reindustrialization.
Choi would like to see the cooperation zone’s development prioritized as a pilot cooperation area, with a special authority to supervise it.
“We can’t make it if Hong Kong and Shenzhen do it separately. Both sides must work together for the zone’s development. Given its strength in infrastructure, Shenzhen can construct plants and buildings there first. Hong Kong can then bring in its management style and appeal in the business environment,” says Choi.
He believes this strategy — creating an SAR within an SAR — can bring the benefits of the two cities together. The flow of people, goods, capital and information will be free.
During her visit to Beijing last week, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor asked the Ministry of Science and Technology to back the development of the Hong Kong innovation and technology park.
In his 2018-19 Budget speech, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po set aside HK$20 billion (US$2.6 billion) for the first phase of the park’s construction, which is now in progress. The government aims to make the first batch of land available by next year for the initial phase of the superstructure development.
Apart from innovation, the fifth plenum stressed further opening-up. Choi says that under the “dual circulation” development pattern, Hong Kong can play a role in both “internal circulation” and “external circulation”, which is similar to the “bringing in” and “going global” strategies.
“The symbol of the ‘dual circulation’ development pattern looks like the infinity symbol; Hong Kong’s position is in the middle,” he says.
In terms of “internal circulation”, Choi believes now is a great time for Hong Kong to better integrate with the mainland’s development beyond the Bay Area. For “external circulation”, he emphasizes Hong Kong’s role as a “super connector”, bridging the mainland and world markets with a strong external connection under the Belt and Road Initiative
“The mainland is the world’s biggest market with 1.4 billion people. As part of China, Hong Kong has the advantages. As an international city and financial center, Hong Kong is where we can work with the mainland and be a part of the world. That’s our future and that’s what we’re doing today.”
Choi was among the first batch of Hong Kong investors to plough money into the mainland after late State leader Deng Xiaoping ushered in the reform and opening-up policy in 1978.
More than 60 percent of foreign direct investment into and out of the mainland is channeled through Hong Kong. The SAR’s currency, equity and debt markets help attract foreign funds, while international firms see Hong Kong as a launchpad to expand into the mainland.
To Choi, Hong Kong’s importance to the mainland will not diminish, but will instead become greater and greater in the future.
But he cautions against the city getting caught in the crosshairs of the escalating Sino-US frictions. Washington has demanded “Made in Hong Kong” goods be labeled “Made in China” as part of its sanctions to pressure Beijing and the SAR.
‘Made in Hong Kong, China’
Choi says the Sino-US relationship is quite sensitive in a US presidential election year. “For various reasons, the US sanctions are against Hong Kong. Members of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce and I feel it’s quite unfair to Hong Kong,” says the permanent honorary president of the Hong Kong-based chamber.
He argues it’s totally wrong for the US to demand that Hong Kong products be labeled as of China origin, given that Hong Kong is a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Hong Kong joined APEC in 1991. As provided for under the Basic Law, Hong Kong continues to use the name “Hong Kong, China” as a separate and full member after it returned to China in 1997.
“Therefore, our products should be of Hong Kong origin; or you can say it’s a ‘Hong Kong, China origin’. But you cannot say these are all of China origin because Hong Kong’s status is not designated by the US. It’s by the World Trade Organization, by APEC.”
Under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, the SAR government initiated legal procedures on Oct 30 to challenge the new US regulation.
Choi’s chamber expressed support for the government’s move, believing that relevant action will protect Hong Kong businessmen’s legitimate rights and safeguard the city’s international status and reputation.
According to the Hong Kong Trade and Industry Department, the US was Hong Kong’s second-largest trading partner last year, with trade valued at HK$516.9 billion — just behind the mainland.
“We buy more products from the US than they buy from us,” he says, adding that some manufacturers that process products in Hong Kong feel they’ve been targeted by the US government.
Hong Kong was the US’ third-largest export market for wine in 2019, its fourth-largest for beef and ninth-largest for all agricultural products.
Data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis shows the 2019 US goods trade surplus with Hong Kong was US$26 billion, down 16.1 percent from US$31 billion in the previous year. In the first seven months of 2020, the US goods trade surplus plunged 51.6 percent to US$7.82 billion.
Given the trade volume and US surplus with Hong Kong, Choi thinks the sanctions’ effect on Hong Kong businesses will be mostly from other countries that may follow suit.
“Some of our members complained they’ve been trading with the US for decades, (and their products have) always (been labeled as) Hong Kong origin. It has been the norm for a long time that we don’t tax US products and the US doesn’t tax Hong Kong products. But suddenly, it has all changed and we feel it’s unfair to us,” says Choi.
Hong Kong always supports free trade and globalization, he says. “The city and its business community would like to work with everyone in the world, including the US.”
Jonathan Choi Koon-shum
Born in 1957, Zhongshan
• Member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee
• Chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong
• Representative to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council
• Member of the Standing Committee of the All-China Federation of Industry and
Commerce
• Chairman of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Entrepreneurs Union
• Economic adviser to the president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Chairman of Sunwah Group
Contact the writers at edithlu@chinadailyhk.com
