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| The Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau expressway, from Shenzhen. We’ve been on the Hong Kong to Macau bit. |
We sit here in Hong Kong at the heart of the Greater Bay Area (GBA), a region Beijing has designated as a high-tech and financial development area.
Over my decades in China if I’ve learned one thing it’s this: when China says it’ll do something, it usually does. I remember passing by Shenzhen in 1976, by train from Hong Kong to what was then Canton. It was quite literally paddy fields. Peasants in conical hats mud-wading behind water buffalo.
I remember being taken back there in 1983 by local officials trying to sell my clients and me on an investment. “And here”, said one, expansively waving his arms over what were still paddy fields and mud, “we are going to build a highway and a major city.” Sure, we thought, and walked on.
The photo above is today. The skyline looks like Hong Kong. It’s Shenzhen, city of thirty million.Over my decades in China if I’ve learned one thing it’s this: when China says it’ll do something, it usually does. I remember passing by Shenzhen in 1976, by train from Hong Kong to what was then Canton. It was quite literally paddy fields. Peasants in conical hats mud-wading behind water buffalo.
I remember being taken back there in 1983 by local officials trying to sell my clients and me on an investment. “And here”, said one, expansively waving his arms over what were still paddy fields and mud, “we are going to build a highway and a major city.” Sure, we thought, and walked on.
This is the optimistic side of the Hong Kong story, the flip side of the scary security Law debacle and greater Beijing interventions. This is the one where Beijing wants us to be the linchpin of the GBA.
With a total population of 70 million people across 11 cities and a projected economy estimated at US$1.5 trillion, the GBA is a natural region to be targeted for economic growth.If it were a country, the GBA would be the ninth largest in the world, larger than both Canada and my native Australia.
This is serious business. And if I had to bet, it’d be that it will happen. Indeed it’s happening before our eyes. My suggestion to young Hongkongers today, struggling to find work locally, is: cast your eyes north and west. Learn Mandarin and cast your eyes on the GBA.
A bit more from ‘Greater Bay Area guarantees city will continue to play key financial role’:
The economic integration of Hong Kong and Macau with the rest of the country is proceeding apace. The latest is a sweeping plan to allow people in both Special Administrative Regions and Guangdong to make use of financial services and buy wealth management products from each other. The so-called Greater Bay Area (GBA) development is being put back on track after the gradual reopening of the mainland economy from the coronavirus pandemic.
The ambitious plan is designed to meet the financial needs of people and local governments as well as the national goals of Beijing to turn the GBA into one of the world’s most innovative and dynamic economic regions. With a total population of 70 million people across 11 cities and a projected economy estimated at US$1.5 trillion, the GBA is a natural region to be targeted for economic growth.
The mainland middle class has long suffered from a dearth of investment products and opportunities. Mom and pop investors are often forced to put money in risky financial vehicles they hardly understand, such as the recent Bank of China crude oil futures investment disaster.Under the new scheme, residents of Hong Kong and Macau can buy wealth management products sold by Chinese banks in the GBA, while their Guangdong counterparts can tap financial products sold in the two SARs without need to travel or open a local bank account. Local insurers may also be allowed to open shops across the border to service customers.
