Free flow of resources crucial for Bay Area
Free flow of resources — such as capital, talents, information and goods — between the two special administrative regions and Guangdong province is key to the GuangdongHong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’s development, panelists told a Caixin Summit in Hong Kong on Friday.
Leveraging the diverse strengths of centers in the 11-city cluster would give the Bay Area features in common with the world’s other three leading bay areas, Antony Leung Kam-chung, former financial secretary and current group chairman and chief executive of Nan Fung Group, told the summit.
The biggest hurdle is free flow of resources, especially capital and talents. Panelists urged the central government to build a coordination mechanism to solve the problem.
“The Bay Area cities such as Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou all have rich financial resources, which are the core elements for its development. But these financial resources have not been fully integrated yet,” said Li Tong, chief executive and executive president of Bank of China International.
She said cooperation on financial resources in the Bay Area could set an example for the opening-up of the mainland’s financial industry.
“We could explore mutual opening-up of financial markets in the Bay Area, such as broaden the channel, type and credit of the Bay Area citizens’ cross-boundary investment,” she said.
In terms of talent flow, travel among Bay Area cities is much easier today with online application for travel permits. But people still need to deal with boundary-crossing procedures.
“The major problem behind that is departments not sharing information with each other on the mainland. Also they do not share it with the Hong Kong side,” said Guo Wanda, vice-chairman of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and
Macao Studies.
Complicated boundarycrossing procedures seem to be an urgent problem as Hong Kong plays a critical role in exporting talents to the Bay Area. Leung noted the cities’ advanced higher education has provided a huge talent pool, as four universities from Hong Kong rank among the top 100 globally.
“Hong Kong’s low tax rate and leading medical treatment also attracts talents from all over the world. As an international city, Hong Kong could nurture global talents and drive innovative technology development for the Bay Area,” said Leung.