The close bonds between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland have never been stronger.
As the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region marked its 24th anniversary, bilateral collaboration has neither flinched nor stopped. Salient breakthroughs have been made in deepening economic integration and fostering exchanges of professionals across a wide spectrum of businesses despite the cross-border travel curbs to check the spread of COVID-19.
Special examinations, or simplified application requirements, have been offered for Hong Kong professionals to enable them to practice and spend more time in the Greater Bay Area. The professionals agreed that the experience has deepened cross-border integration and strengthened communication with peers there.
Closer integration testifies to the growing demand for professional services in the GBA that covers nine cities in Guangdong province, as well as the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions. But experts say there is room for improvement.
COVID-19 has thrust the medical profession into the forefront as the demand for doctors and improved medical facilities grows. With the quarantine requirements still in force, some Hong Kong patients under the care of the city’s Hospital Authority but who live in Guangdong are unable to have follow-up medical consultations in the SAR.
In response, Hong Kong authorities launched a program in November that provides a subsidy of up to 2,000 yuan (US$310) for each patient to have medical consultations at the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, or HKU-SZH. The public hospital, located in Shenzhen’s Futian district, is one of the university’s two teaching hospitals. Opened in 2012, it was built and funded by the Shenzhen municipal government.
“What’s more important is that the subsidy scheme allows encrypted copies of Hong Kong patients’ medical records to be sent to us for reference,” said Lo Chung-mau, the hospital’s chief executive.
“This is a major breakthrough that we hope could be the starting point for mutual recognition of medical records across the Greater Bay Area,” he said.
Wang Shouqun, managing partner of China Commercial Lam Lee Lai Lawyers. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Moreover, the Hong Kong and Macao Medicine and Equipment Connect was implemented earlier this year. Under this measure, designated mainland hospitals in the GBA use Hong Kong-approved drugs and medical devices without prior certification from the National Medical Products Administration.
“The pandemic may have impeded our interaction, but it has injected a new impetus into cross-border integration,” Lo said.
Many Hong Kong doctors, like Lo, who used to work in Shenzhen and return to Hong Kong each day have been unable to keep up with the routine and decided to live in Shenzhen instead, at least most of the time, until the travel restrictions and quarantine rules are lifted.
It used to be difficult for Lo and other Hong Kong doctors to fully take up professional practices across the border. “When our hospital opened nine years ago, I didn’t even know what my title here should be,” Lo recalled.
In Hong Kong, Lo holds the rank of a consultant — the title for a senior hospital-based physician or surgeon who has completed all of the specialist medical training. With more than three decades’ experience under his belt, he is also director of the Liver Transplant Center at Queen Mary Hospital and a professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Hong Kong.
Without a proper title, Lo, like other highly experienced Hong Kong doctors at the Shenzhen hospital, faced hurdles in performing surgeries and applying for research projects.
The turning point came in April, when the Shenzhen government decided to simplify the recognition of qualifications to enable medical personnel from Hong Kong and Macao to practice on the mainland.
HKU-SZH was designated as a pilot medical facility that can review professional titles itself. So far, more than 37 Hong Kong consultants have been recognized as chief physician — one of the highest ranks in the mainland’s medical system.
After being granted the title, Lo’s next step was to unify the training systems on both sides of the border so that mutual recognition could be made much easier. The two systems are very different, he explained.
George Chong, contract director of China State Construction International Medical Industry Development Co. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Lo suggested that Shenzhen should adopt rules similar to Hong Kong’s, and HKU-SZH could take the lead before extending the regulations to more mainland medical institutions.
Other industries have also been badly hit by COVID-19. But many professionals involved in cross-border businesses are coping with the challenge by tapping nascent markets and creating offbeat operation models.
Wang Shouqun, managing partner of China Commercial Lam Lee Lai Lawyers in Qianhai, Shenzhen — the first joint venture firm between Hong Kong and mainland in the legal profession — said that they have explored new operation modes and markets to soften the pandemic’s impact.
Her company has carried out cross-border and long-distance notarization through online videos with the approval of the Qianhai Notary Office. As for cross-border recognition of professional qualifications, Wang said the legal services sector has also made breakthroughs.
Previously, the first step for Hong Kong lawyers to practice on the mainland was to take a national judicial examination to gain a certificate, like mainland law graduates. But it is an uphill battle for Hong Kong residents in view of the vastly different legal systems and languages adopted.
To ease the restriction, the central government said in 2019 that eligible legal practitioners from the SARs could take a special examination in Shenzhen to let them practice in the GBA’s nine Guangdong cities.
Details of the examination were released in October last year, and a date was agreed upon in January.
Pang Wan-hei, president of the Law Society of Hong Kong, said at a webinar in April that more than 600 Hong Kong legal practitioners had signed up for the special examination, but it had to be postponed because of the quarantine measures on the mainland.
According to Wang, six professionals at her law firm have enrolled for the examination. Currently, the firm has eight Hong Kong-recognized and four Macao-recognized lawyers.
Lo Chung-mau, chief executive of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
In addition, the firm has two Hong Kong professionals with mainland qualifications. Wang described the special examination as a breakthrough for legal practitioners from Hong Kong and Macao who intend to tap the GBA market.
Regarding further integration, she said the qualification recognition is just the first step, and urged Guangdong authorities to offer more preferential policies for eligible Hong Kong lawyers to develop their businesses there.
For architects, special examinations have been arranged for mutual recognition of their qualifications since 2003 when the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement between Hong Kong and the mainland was signed. However, architects need to be employed by an organization qualified for construction engineering and design if they want to use the title earned through the exam in practice.
The requirements for Hong Kong or mainland companies to be eligible for such qualification are also high, including a registered capital of 60 million yuan and the stipulation that each company must hire more than 500 specialists. Fortunately, in September, the Qianhai administrative authority introduced a new registration system for eligible Hong Kong architects and institutions to work directly in the zone, removing previous restrictions.
In January, the policy was extended to the GBA’s Guangdong cities.
George Chong, contract director of China State Construction International Medical Industry Development Co, is among the first batch of recognized professionals hired through Qianhai’s new policy.
He had been involved in the construction of the Hong Kong Infection Control Center and the AsiaWorld-Expo treatment facility, both backed by the central government to help Hong Kong combat COVID-19.
“Through the two projects — the result of collaboration between Hong Kong’s and mainland’s construction industry and officials — we have brought Hong Kong’s high-standard construction models and requirements, especially the medical facilities, to the attention of mainland professionals and officials,” Chong said.
Seeing the potential for the sector, Hong Kong-based China State Construction International Holdings set up a branch on the mainland in 2019 — dedicated to the development of the medical industry — amid greater demand for high-quality medical facilities.
According to Chong, they have been invited by local governments, biochemical centers, and public and private hospitals in Yunnan, Guangdong and Sichuan provinces to cooperate in various projects. But their main target will remain the GBA, he said.
