To the point
Ever since Premier Li Keqiang formally presented the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development project in the central government’s 2017 work report last March, much has been discussed on what should be done to facilitate the envisioned super-city cluster’s development. But no suggestion is nearly as concrete and significant as those which the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions and Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong have just come up with.
Success in building a city cluster depends greatly on whether the cities can fully use their economic complementarity. For that to happen, a free flow of people — aside from capital and other factors of production — must be made possible. The dozens of proposed measures the three political groups unveiled this week and plan to table in the upcoming Two Sessions would undoubtedly facilitate and encourage more Hong Kong residents to study, work or live on the mainland, should the measures be adopted by central authorities.
Among the measures, the DAB proposal to let Hong Kong residents work and stay much longer on the mainland without needing to pay the individual income tax is the most significant in terms of encouraging crossboundary economic activity. Currently, Hong Kong residents who are employed by Hong Kong companies and seconded to work on the mainland for more than 183 days a year must pay the individual income tax, which is much higher than the income tax charged in Hong Kong. The DAB proposed that weekends and holidays should be excluded from calculation. The BPA went further by suggesting crossboundary employees should only pay tax in their area of residence. Double taxation is no doubt among the biggest hindrances that deter Hong Kong talent from working on the mainland. If such a big hindrance is removed, Hong Kong can greatly expand its scope of economic activity by shifting much economic activity and moving staff across the boundary, taking advantage of the ample and cheaper land resources there.
Another proposal seeks to build “Hong Kong villages”, or communities for Hong Kong people, in neighboring Guangdong cities such as Zhuhai, Zhongshan and Huizhou. This would go a long way toward easing Hong Kong’s severe land shortage problem. Land scarcity and the subsequent housing shortage have not only caused serious social problems and undermined social harmony but have also choked economic activity in Hong Kong.
Other proposals — which essentially seek rights or easier access to everything from applying for a civil service post on the mainland and joining the People’s Liberation Army to healthcare and mobile payment services — would not only facilitate development of the Greater Bay Area but also effectively further the natural integration between the special administrative region and mainland, to the benefit of all. No one would expect that all of those proposals would be accommodated and implemented in a short time. But Hong Kong people have reasons to look forward.