Hong Kong: Pearl of Greater Bay Area

June 4, 2024

HONG KONG – Integration with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has been a top priority of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s government ever since the signing of the framework agreement for deepening cooperation between Guangdong province, and the Macao and Hong Kong SARs in July 2017.

True, the Hong Kong SAR government is pulling out all the stops to increase the city’s attractiveness. But, apart from coping with daily pressures, the government ought to sit back and think strategically about what the GBA integration means to Hong Kong. It needs to think hard especially about three questions: How will the GBA integration transform Hong Kong? What challenges and opportunities the GBA integration brings? How can the government maximize the benefits of the GBA integration?

The GBA integration will have a long-term, transformational effect on Hong Kong. Under the government’s “Northern Metropolis” development plan, three more railways will be built to connect Hong Kong’s northern districts to the mainland. After the construction of the railways is completed, many among the estimated 2.5 million residents in the “Northern Metropolis” will find it more convenient to travel to the mainland than to the Hong Kong Island. As the GBA cities on the mainland become increasingly sophisticated, more Hong Kong residents might wish to move or live there, and commute to Hong Kong on a daily basis.

While some people may be worried about the “hollowing out” of Hong Kong, the migration of Hong Kong residents to the mainland is not a bad thing. For a long time, Hong Kong residents have been stuck in congested and expensive apartments because they are boxed in by Hong Kong’s artificial boundary, and are