SAR can do even better in future
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuetngor said after meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday she was inspired by the recognition and encouragement from central government leaders for Hong Kong. We have no doubt many Hong Kong residents feel the same after watching the meeting on television or reading about it in newspapers or online. Inspiration is the best word to summarize what Hong Kong residents need to think about going forward and, given its capabilities and achievements, what will keep them motivated to live up to the great expectations.
President Xi hopes Hong Kong and Macao will further develop themselves by embracing the nation’s cause of reform and opening-up because he’s confident the two special administrative regions have what it takes to excel themselves, as they have done so far, in the years to come. While celebrating the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up, the nation of 1.4 billion is focused on reaching the next level in its quest for rejuvenation and modernization. For Hong Kong, this means new challenges and opportunities to reinvent itself for the better one way or another.
In the past 40 years, Hong Kong had experienced many great changes in its own development, as well as that of the mainland, while playing its unique role in the nation’s reform and opening-up. It’s no longer the young “Asian tiger” of the 1980s because it has grown up and become much more capable, knowing it has played a unique and important role in the country’s peaceful development. That is why Hong Kong has no other way to maintain positive development and change for the better, except to further integrate its own growth into the nation’s overall development strategy.
Today, Hong Kong is looking at great opportunities literally under its nose — the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area city cluster right at its doorstep and the Belt and Road Initiative-related development, in which the city is a key financial center, trade hub and professional services provider. There are numerous ways for Hong Kong to shine with its rich experience and know-how in value-added business undertakings and high-end industry development, not to mention its potential as a rising innovation-and-technology hub.
All these new growth engines are necessary to diversify and energize Hong Kong’s economy so that it can keep up with the brisk pace of the mainland in becoming an even more powerful global economy. Hong Kong society must advance with the times, as well as with the rest of the nation and the world, or it will be left behind as other competitors surge ahead. It may be irreplaceable for now, but that does not mean others won’t try and give it a good run for the money. To be better, one has to work harder than others, as simple as that.