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
An underdeveloped service sector and rivalry between Guangdong’s three biggest cities could hamper efforts to turn southern China’s “Greater Bay Area” 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’s 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’s 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 “there are three heads in the Greater Bay Area – Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen”.
“If there is no appropriate division of labour and not enough interaction… These cities could become a source of internal conflict,” she warned.
In the United States, the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose were California’s financial, manufacturing and innovation hubs, respectively, Lee said.
