Efforts to transform Hong Kong, Macau and nine Guangdong cities into an innovation powerhouse to catch Silicon Valley could falter if rivalries not shelved and service sector remains underdeveloped, lawmaker says<\/b>
\nAn underdeveloped service sector and rivalry between Guangdong\u2019s three biggest cities could hamper efforts to turn southern China\u2019s \u201cGreater Bay Area\u201d into a tech and finance hub to rival those in Japan and the US, a veteran pro-establishment lawmaker in Hong Kong said on Thursday.
Starry Lee Wai-king, chairwoman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, the city\u2019s biggest pro-government party, said Beijing must learn from integration in the Tokyo, New York and San Francisco bay areas.
In a candid assessment of efforts to transform Hong Kong, Macau and nine Guangdong cities into a financial and innovation powerhouse to rival Silicon Valley, Lee pointed to three key problems Beijing would need to address.
Intercity competition, overlapping roles and the service industry\u2019s relatively insignificant economic presence could hold back the project, Lee said, and the experience of foreign countries would prove instructive.
The Tokyo, New York and San Francisco bay areas were centred around one major city, she said, but \u201cthere are three heads in the Greater Bay Area \u2013 Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen\u201d.
\u201cIf there is no appropriate division of labour and not enough interaction… These cities could become a source of internal conflict,\u201d she warned.
In the United States, the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose were California\u2019s financial, manufacturing and innovation hubs, respectively, Lee said.
\u201cIn comparison, there are multiple financial, logistics and technology centres in the Greater Bay Area.\u201d
On the service sector, Lee lamented that while it accounted for about 80 per cent of the economy in Tokyo, New York and the San Francisco region, the industry only made up 60 per cent of the 11 urban economies in China\u2019s bay area. In Hong Kong however, 90 per cent of the economy is driven by the sector.
\u201c[The Greater Bay Area] is still at the stage of a port and industrial economy,\u201d Lee said in an article published in the latest issue of pro-Beijing magazine Bauhinia.
The economies of its 11 cities were worth US$1.58 trillion last year and covered an area of 56,000 sq km with an estimated population of 68 million.
Turning to Hong Kong, Lee said the city must use the bay area project to diversify its economy and address a shortage of housing.
\u201cWe should build subsidised housing, hospitals and elderly care homes in the Greater Bay Area,\u201d she said.
Witman Hung, a Hong Kong deputy to China\u2019s national legislature, said he believed bay area integration would go smoothly as the country\u2019s vice-premier, Han Zheng, had been tasked with overseeing the project.
Han last month paid a visit to Shenzhen during which he made clear to local leaders that they should shelve any intercity rivalries and focus on making the mega project work.
Hung believed it was \u201chealthy for the service industry to be at about 60 per cent… because we need to manufacture products [designed by] technology innovators\u201d.
\u201cHong Kong and Shenzhen are actually strong in different areas,\u201d Hung added. \u201cHong Kong is good at being international, and Shenzhen is good at creating innovative products.\u201d
Another local deputy to the National People\u2019s Congress, David Wong Yau-kar, said it would be an advantage to have Hong Kong and Shenzhen as two regional financial centres.
Hong Kong is China\u2019s largest offshore yuan trading centre, while Shenzhen is home to one of the mainland\u2019s two stock exchanges.
\u201cThere wasn\u2019t much coordination in the development of the Tokyo and San Francisco bay areas,\u201d Wong said. \u201cThe cities just developed according to their strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n