Date: 2018-12-04  Author: Lin Zhipeng  Source: People’s Daily Online

 When President Xi visited Guangdong, he emphasized that concrete efforts were needed to develop the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and to bring opening-up to a higher level and a high standard. This is a sincere hope as well as a new mission to Guangdong, the pioneer and the pilot zone of opening-up. To shoulder the new mission and to present fresh actions, the key is to further enhance the overall coordination, complement advantages and consider interests of all parties. Well-written the chapter of constructing the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, fully demonstrate the unique characteristics of ‘One Nation, Two Systems’.

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area has world-class ports group and vast economic hinderlands. In recently years, Guangdong has made efforts to remove institutional hurdles and create a new Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area cooperation situation. Innovative achievements have been made in the area of commercial registration, customs facilitation and social governance with some successful experiences been extended national wide. Focus on service-orientation to expand the opening-up to Hong Kong and Macau and becoming the champion in realizing a free service and trade in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau, push harder in the construction of cooperative platforms such as Guangzhou Nansha, Shenzhen Qianhai and Zhuhai Hengqin. In the meantime, cooperation related to cross-border infrastructure, customs facilitation, higher education, medical care and utilities supply to Hong Kong and Macau are all forged ahead steadily. The cooperative development vitality is getting stronger in the area. A world-class city group in the Greater Bay area has begun to take shape and will become one of the most important global capital accumulation centers. Economic aggregate, foreign trade, total utilization of foreign capital in the region and port container throughput all ranked top internationally. Nevertheless, we should also see that the development pattern of three tariff areas and four core cities is not only the biggest characteristic and advantage of the Greater Bay area, but also the difficult point for the construction.  Research shows that there are prominent problems during the construction. For example, the different economic, legal, administrative system and socioculture between the three places lead to high coordination cost; and elements circulation in the Greater Bay Area is not smooth, etc. To tackle these issues, the following aspects need to be considered.

 Build a high quality development model. Establish and improve the construction coordinating mechanism in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area. Work collaboratively to break the institutional obstacles that constrain the development; and smooth the people, material, capital and information flow. Innovate the investment, trade and finance system to build a high-level gateway to the outside world that fully serve the national strategy, and to build a high standard Guangdong free trade pilot zone. Following the requirement of marketization, internationalization and legalization, a more open and transparent market access management mode should be established to create a stable, fairness, transparent and predicable international business environment. Establish a port transportation system with a clear layer, precise division and reasonable layout. Optimize the checkpoint layout to realize customs facilitation and improve the global resources allocation capability of the Greater Bay Area.

 Build an international technological innovation center. Strengthen the cooperation in technology education talents to provide intelligent support for the area development. Benchmarking international rules to create an innovation and entrepreneurship environment with global competitiveness and form an innovative economic belt with industrial linkage, space connection and function penetration. In particular, both international and domestic innovative resources should be collected and utilized to strengthen independent innovation and scientific result transferring ability, and to create an original place for international emerging industries. Emphasize on building up ‘Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macau scientific and technological innovation corridor’; and rely on innovation platforms such as Hong Kong international innovation and scientific center, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area international scientific and innovation center and Pearl River Delta national independent innovation pilot zone to form policy additive effect and innovative force.

Build a high-quality life circle in the Greater Bay Area. Prioritize the living quality and happiness index of the Greater Bay Area people when thinking about the development of the area. Deepen the cooperation between Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau in education, culture, innovation and entrepreneurship, eco-civilization and tourism. Accelerate the rail transit network construction in the Greater Bay Area, improve the network density and function and to create a world-class port area, airfield complex and rail transit network. Boost the competitiveness of the Greater Bay Area in terms of finance, trade and shipping. On one hand, encourage the breakthrough in the cooperation of pension, medical care and health; provide convenience in study, employment and living conditions for Hong Kong and Macau citizens in mainland China and to promote the communication between three places. On the other hand, based on the urbanization needs, introduce premium social public service and industry standard from Hong Kong and Macau to help the reform of Guangdong in the social field. Create a superior living area that is suitable for living, working and traveling, and to provide a high quality home with good eco-environment and perfect service for all Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China citizens.

(Editor: Liu Zeqi)