Released on 18 February, 2019, the Greater Bay Area Development Plan is designed to transform this massive urban connurbation into a regional, if not global, innovation-driven, holistic, liveable economic powerhouse by 2022-35. A comparison with other leading GBAs of New York, Tokyo, and San Francisco shows that the Guangdong-HK-Macao GBA is the largest in popoluation (about 70 million), largest in area (about 56,000 sq km), by far the largest container throughput, by far the busiest aviation hub, and ranks second only to the New York GBA as a world leading financial center.
The Plan hopes to capitalize on the Area's excellent geographical location, robust economic growth, concentration of key innovative factors, advanced level of internationaization, massive infrastructural connectivity, solid complentarity between cities, Hong Kong and Macao's One Country, Two Systems and linkages with China's Belt and Road Initiative.
As far as Hong Kong is concerned, the Plan aims " To consolidate and enhance Hong Kong’s status as international financial, transportation and trade centres as well as an international aviation hub, strengthen its status as a global offshore Renminbi (RMB) business hub and its role as an international asset management centre and a risk management centre, promote the development of high-end and high value-added financial, commercial and trading, logistics and professional services, etc., make great efforts to develop the innovation and technology industries, nurture emerging industries, establish itself as the centre for international legal and dispute resolution services in the Asia-Pacific region, and develop into an international metropolis with enhanced competitiveness."
In the coming years, there will no doubt be intensifying competition between leading cities in the GBA, challenges of closer socio-economic integration with Hong Kong and Macao's One Country, Two Systems, as well as repercussions from freer flow of goods, services, people, talent, ideas and capital.
If managed with flair and imagination, the Area could well emerge as a global GBA paragon. The test of the pudding, however, is in the eating.
