Wu Guangqiang

    jw368@163.com

    WHILE delivering his annual government work report at the opening meeting of the fifth session of China’s 12th National People’s Congress (NPC) on March 5, Premier Li Keqiang said that the Government would draw up a plan for the development of a city cluster in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to give full play to the distinctive strengths of Hong Kong and Macao.

    This is the first time that the concept of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (the Greater Bay Area) has been included in a governmental document, and it has immediately drawn widespread attention.

    The very concept reminds us of such mega-city clusters as the San Francisco Bay Area and Tokyo Bay Area, economic powerhouses in the U.S. and Japan.

    Characterized by their open economic structure, efficient allocation of resources, strong and sustained economic development, convenient and efficient transportation systems, beautiful and pleasant living environments, strong agglomeration and spillover functions, these “Bay Areas” play an active role not only as the engines of the local economy, but as world leaders in innovation and integration.

    Take the San Francisco Bay Area for example, it is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses nine major cities and the metropolitan areas of San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland, along with other smaller urban and rural areas. The United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has designated a more extensive 12-county Combined Statistical Area (CSA) titled the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area.

    In 2015, the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland CSA had a GDP of US$758.5 billion, which would rank 17th in the world if it were a country.

    If the San Francisco Bay Area doesn’t sound familiar to ordinary Chinese, then Silicon Valley must be very familiar to almost every Chinese. The holy land of world innovation is located within the southern reaches of the Bay Area.

    The Tokyo Bay Area, though not as vast as the San Francisco Bay Area, serves as Japan’s economic powerhouse, with its industrial output accounting for 40 percent of the nation’s total and 26 percent of its GDP.

    Yet both will be outshone by the Greater Bay Area in terms of size, impact and importance if the latter comes into being. It will be a world-class economic heavyweight! Comprised of Hong Kong, Macao, and nine cities in Guangdong Province including Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai, the Greater Bay Area covers an area of 56,000 sq km with a population of 100 million. Its GDP is about US$1.3 trillion.

    Each of the cities in the Greater Bay Area has its own strengths and weaknesses. Hong Kong, as one of the world’s financial centers, backed by a mature legal system and business environment, still attracts global investors like a gigantic magnet. But it, as well as Macao, as a typical urban economy, lacks development space. Through the regional cooperation with the Pearl River Delta, both Hong Kong and Macao will gain new momentum.

    Guangzhou has traditional advantages in trade, characterized by the annual Canton Fair, but it is lagging behind Shenzhen in e-business. It’s catching up now, making efforts to turn itself into an e-business giant.

    Shenzhen has impressed the world in recent years with its rapidly growing high-tech and Internet-based industries. Its GDP is rising so fast that it is just a matter of time before it exceeds that of Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

    Yet as a young city, Shenzhen needs to learn more from Hong Kong and Guangzhou in many ways including rule of law, urban management, education and scientific research.

    With the close geographic proximity, Shenzhen and Hong Kong can do more in cooperation. Both sides have decided to set up a technology and innovation park at Hong Kong’s Lok Ma Chau Loop.

    Ties between Hong Kong and Macao and the Chinese mainland will be much closer when the bridge connecting Hong Kong, Macao and Zhuhai opens to traffic at the end of this year.

    Pony Ma, co-founder and CEO of Shenzhen-based Tencent, has proposed to turn the Greater Bay Area into a science and technology hub.

    It is thrilling to imagine the formation of a world-class city cluster that will change China’s as well as the world’s economic landscape.

    (The author is an English tutor and freelance writer.)