Hong Kong deepens connections in the Greater Bay Area

On 30 June 2024, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA) — a key construction project for China — became officially operational. As of 3pm on 3 July, within 72 hours after it became operational, 305,000 vehicles crossed the bridge, for a daily average of over 100,000 vehicles.

These figures are far higher than during the same period for Nansha Bridge as well as other major cross-sea links, and significantly outstrip the daily average for vehicles crossing the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, the key cross-sea link for the Yangtze River Delta Region (YRD).

The Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge is just one physical channel in the GBA; another channel would be the informational channel, which is just as important as an actual transportation channel. A friend who just came back from Hong Kong claimed that one can conveniently use WeChat Pay or Alipay to make purchases there.

Smooth transportation and quick payment when shopping allow one to experience convenience, comfort and satisfaction in life, and are signs of societal improvement, economic development, technological progress and civilisational elevation.

From the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge (before this, the main cross-sea links in the Pearl River Delta were the Humen Bridge, the Huangpu Bridge, and the Nansha Bridge) to the adoption of WeChat Pay and Alipay in Hong Kong, the rapid development of the GBA is evident, supported by both physical infrastructure and digital connectivity.

Figuratively, the transportation network serves as the “hard” infrastructure backbone of the GBA, encompassing high-speed railways, expressways and air travel. In contrast, the online communication channels represent the “soft” infrastructure links, focusing on informatisation and digitisation efforts.

Globally, there are four renowned bay areas: the New York Bay (US), the San Francisco Bay (US), the Tokyo Bay (Japan) and the GBA (China). Of these, the GBA stands out as the largest, boasting the highest population, the fastest-growing economy and a burgeoning reputation for innovation.

The GBA consists of the two first-tier cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and seven prefectural-level cities of Zhuhai, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Huizhou, Zhaoqing, as well as the two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau, with a total area of 56,000 square kilometres, accounting for around 30% of the total landmass in Guangdong province and around 0.6% of China’s total area, with a population of up to 86 million people. 

According to data from the Guangdong Province GBA Office, in 2023 the GBA’s economic output broke the 14 trillion RMB (US$1.92 trillion) mark, accounting for one-ninth of the nation’s economy. The World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index 2023 showed that among the top 100 areas globally, the GBA’s science and technology cluster ranked second globally for the fourth consecutive year. 

Compared to the other three bay areas, one might say the enormous challenges faced by the GBA in areas such as economic development and technological innovation are unique. The GBA is special in that it is one country, with two systems, three customs territories and three currencies (renminbi, Hong Kong dollar, Macau pataca). This has hampered economic development, flow of personnel, logistics, trade and so forth.

On the other hand, the GBA has some commonalities. Historically, most of the three areas of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau were under the ambit of the “Guangzhou administration”, and from ancient times it has shared the Pearl River, with a common cultural and linguistic foundation, close interpersonal relationships and similar customs. All this has aided economic development, cultural exchanges, and the flow of logistics and trade. 

The core issue lies in navigating the information age to seamlessly integrate the flows of people, goods, capital and information within the GBA despite dual systems and currencies, establishing an economic system and development model centred on innovation. It entails achieving high connectivity in the markets within the GBA and becoming a GBA of the world.

To achieve this goal, it is essential to first realise the hard and soft connectivity of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau. 

In terms of hard connectivity, China’s National Development and Reform Commission has agreed to implement a raft of intercity rail projects in the GBA early in August 2020. The project includes 13 intercity railways and five terminal projects covering approximately 775 kilometres. 

Even earlier in 2019, intelligent public transportation in the GBA was also proposed, mainly to roll out major projects such as the ability to use just one smart card to enjoy public transport services across all cities in the GBA. This will involve integrating Guangzhou’s Yang Cheng Tong/Lingnan Tong; Hong Kong’s Octopus card; and Macau’s Macau Pass, as well as the GBA’s buses and cabs, highways, railways and trams, intercity trains, high-speed rails and light rails to improve movement across cities. 

Now, another transportation hub of the GBA has opened to traffic — the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge. It will join the existing Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, Humen Bridge and Nansha Bridge in forming the hard connectivity of the GBA.

There is a more concrete blueprint in creating the hard connectivity of the GBA: forming a “one-hour living circle”, which will be achieved through the construction of 11 cross-sea links in the Pearl River Estuary, coupled with subways, intercity railways and high-speed rails. 

However, hard connectivity alone is not enough to make the GBA soar. By the time mainland residents are able to conveniently head south to Hong Kong and Macau and Hong Kong and Macau residents can do the same up north to the mainland, informatisation and digitisation would also have to be integrated and mutually compatible to facilitate entrepreneurship, work, research and life. The reality behind this is cross-border payment and digital processing in both government and business affairs — realising the soft connectivity of informatisation.   

As such, the GBA needs to establish cross-border wealth management connectivity, cross-border mutual recognition of payments, portability of social security benefits, Hong Kong-Macau medicine and equipment connectivity, cross-border government services, integrated business registration services, and comprehensive service platforms for GBA affairs. 

Not only these, in late 2023, Guangdong also issued a three-year action plan for the construction of a “Digital Greater Bay Area”. It plans to unify various aspects of life from industrial and business to government affairs, striving to build an integrated economic and living circle in the GBA.

Cross-sea channels such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge and Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge represent the hard connectivity of the GBA, while digital tools such as WeChat mini-programs represent the GBA’s soft connectivity. The former shortens the physical distance within the GBA while the latter closes the gap between the psychological and digital economies. The combination of the two is expected to significantly propel the development of advanced manufacturing and the digital economy, both of which serve as powerful engines driving the development of the new economy.

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau GBA stands as one of the world’s foremost manufacturing regions and also one of regions representing China’s most mature digital economy. Currently, the revenues of industrial enterprises above designated size in Guangdong exceeds 18 trillion RMB, while the value-added scale of its digital economy surpassed 5.9 trillion RMB, ranking first in China for many consecutive years.

Along with the universities in the GBA and Hong Kong’s globalised financial system and talent environment, complementary effects can be achieved. With these conditions, the GBA is expected to take off in the future.

Related: [Big read] Greater Bay Area grand plan gets a boost with Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge | Integrating Hong Kong into China’s Greater Bay Area: Easier said than done? | Is the Greater Bay Area still China’s answer to Silicon Valley?