Hong Kong's business response to the One Belt, One Road initiative has so far remained guarded. At this stage, most see this as Beijing government mantra and if anything, largely confined to physical infrastructure. My views are included in a South China Morning Post (SCMP) Special Report of 28 March. Click here. There are also geopolitical considerations. Click here
What hasn't been done justice in the SCMP report is my brief reference to the vast opportunities presented by the Pearl River Delta Greater Bay Area vision. This vision has recently been endorsed in the Two Sessions of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (NPC/CPPCC) in March, 2017.
The five existing bay area economies around the world, comprising cities and related infrastructure clustering around New York, San Francisco, London, Tokyo and Sydney, already account for some 60% of the world's economy. The Pearl River Delta Area has now overtaken Tokyo as the world's largest mega-city, according to a report in The Guardian.
Under a plan endorsed in the Two Session, Click here the nine dynamic cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Foshan, Dongguan, Huizhou, Zhongshan, Zhaoqing and Jiangmen are to be further integrated with the economies of Hong Kong and Macao. Click here The strategy envisages Hong Kong as the Greater Bay Area's financial center, Shenzhen its e-tech center, Guangzhou its high-tech manufacturing center and Macao its entertainment and gaming center.
Immense political, legal, and socio-economic barriers between Hong Kong and the other cities have to be overcome if this Greater Bay Area vision is to come to fruition. Nevertheless, the economies of the various city clusters in the Pearl River Delta, Hong Kong included, are already highly integrated. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai - Macao Bridge expected to be completed by end 2017, and the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, expected to be completed by end 2018, will bring the various economies even much closer together.
For a start, this closer economic integration is set to alleviate Hong Kong's tight land supply for businesses. Click here As the Pearl River Delta Greater Bay Area economy pulls its weight together, it is set to become an economic dynamo driving the Maritime Silk Road component of the One Belt, One Road initiative.
Initial scepticism notwithstanding, both the Great Bay Area vision and the One Belt, One Road initiative are part and parcel of a globalized world characterized by cross-border inter-connected and inter-dependent value chains, where the flow of capital, goods, services and information knows no boundaries, a world where cities don't function in isolation but in synergistic clusters, and a world increasingly connected by regional and transnational infrastructural links (or Connectography). It is this global connectivity, empowered by technological innovation, digitization and the internet, that informs the arrival of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
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