To the point
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuetngor said in her speech on Wednesday at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Financial Forum that the Bay Area is an important window to the outside world for the nation’s financial development, as it is the most internationalized, most globally connected region in the country.
That is a simple fact no one can deny because Hong Kong has been an international financial center for many years and has been playing a major role in the country’s financial system reform by providing know-how and experience in financial operations as well as policymaking and channeling foreign investment; while Guangdong has been a pilot region in the nation’s reform and opening-up drive since it began 40 years ago, and Macao is also a special administrative region like Hong Kong, with abundant connections to the outside world to boot.
The nine cities in the Pearl River Delta region, led by provincial capital Guangzhou and economic boomtown Shenzhen, are the heart of Guangdong province, which has become the leading economic powerhouse of the country thanks to the reform and opening-up campaign. As one of the richest provinces on the mainland, Guangdong is no doubt pumped to flex its economic muscles when the Bay Area is ready to roll, joining hands with Hong Kong and Macao in turning it into an international financial and trade hub rivaling the existing major bay areas of New York and Tokyo.
However, as Lam pointed out in her speech, the three regions in the Bay Area must do their best to minimize the constraints posed by differences between two systems, three currencies and three banking systems in addition to three independent customs authorities, not to mention their own ways of life and judicial systems. They must find a way to work together despite various obstacles that are bound to pop up in the years to come, or it will be very difficult if not entirely impossible to achieve any goal they have in mind. For example, the three financial sectors are already doing business with one another on a daily basis, but the yuan is not freely convertible with the Hong Kong dollar or Macao dollar yet. That means they need to at least allow residents of the three regions to use electronic payment services without having to open bank accounts in all three regions in order to enjoy life without carrying three different currencies on them all the time.
Such systemic constraints are unique to the Bay Area, which means three parties must overcome them on their own, with necessary guidance and policy support from the central government, of course. Fortunately the central government authorities have been hands-on since the very start and will introduce tailor-made policies and measures designed to help the Bay Area not only maintain healthy development but also become a major growth engine for the national economy and livelihood booster in the Asia-Pacific region as well.