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2021 March
Opportunities for Hong Kong during 14th Five-Year Period

If Hong Kong can capture the development opportunities arising from the 14th Five-Year Plan, accurately finding its position and keeping pace with the trend, it will likely emerge from the current economic downturn and “get started again” more quickly by leveraging its own strengths to meet the country’s needs.
 

 

The release of the 14th Five-Year Plan marks the official launch of a blueprint to propel the country’s development into a new era. Fang Zhou, Research Director of the One Country Two Systems Research Institute, stressed that this will bring Hong Kong opportunities in many aspects.

 

The significance of the “three news”

Fang explained that the 14th Five-Year Plan highlighted “three news”, i.e. a new development stage, a new development philosophy and a new development paradigm. He noted that the country has entered a new stage of “two-step” modernization. The country advocates high-quality development during this period. Regarding paradigm, it manifests as a new situation where internal circulation is the mainstay, with internal and external circulations reinforcing each other.

 

Fang believes that the construction of a new paradigm will make production, distribution, circulation and consumption more dependent on the domestic market, forming a virtuous cycle of the national economy. He further noted that this paradigm is an open dual circulation that can more effectively attract global resource factors and form new advantages for participating in international economic cooperation and competition.

 

This also has huge implications for Hong Kong. This is because putting a concerted effort to build a strong domestic market and trade and fully leveraging the resources of both domestic and international markets will help Hong Kong’s future development.

 

Capturing multifaceted opportunities

The country has expressed full support for Hong Kong’s efforts to consolidate its competitive advantages. It also hopes that Hong Kong will integrate more into its development landscape and further build the Greater Bay Area. Fang believes that under such circumstances, Hong Kong can capture opportunities in the Greater Bay Area in several aspects.

 

For example, in the area of innovation and technology (I&T), Fang believes that Hong Kong can participate in major national scientific platforms. This is because faced with the unfavorable environment of western countries’ containment of China’s technology, it is even more necessary to accelerate the development of the Greater Bay Area into an international I&T hub. As Hong Kong has excellent basic research capabilities and appeal to international talents, collaboration with other cities in the Greater Bay Area will help accelerate the development of its I&T industries. On the finance side, Hong Kong’s involvement in the internationalization of the RMB will consolidate its status as a global offshore RMB business hub. As for green finance, as Hong Kong has just started, there is room for collaboration to jointly promote the establishment of a Greater Bay Area carbon trading platform and jointly realize the country’s carbon emission commitments.

 

Shipping, trade, professional services and social livelihood

Fang also suggested that Hong Kong should improve its service capabilities, including ship management, financial leasing, insurance and maritime arbitration, continuing to meet market needs. Regarding aviation, Hong Kong and airports in the Greater Bay Area can work together to build regional portal hubs through rational division between passenger and freight transport and coordinated airspace management.

 

Regarding professional services, Fang noted that Hong Kong can play a role in the development of modern services in the Greater Bay Area. He said that the standard of Hong Kong’s professional services is at the forefront of the world and it has outstanding talents and extensive international experience in many fields, which are a positive and important force for integrating into the country’s overall development.

 

Regarding social livelihood, Fang believes that Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao should integrate their systems in the social livelihood fields of employment, medical care, education and elderly care. He hopes for a slew of measures to not only find new growth drivers for the Hong Kong and Macao economies and promote industrial diversification, but also expand the living space for Hong Kong and Macao residents, making the Greater Bay Area a vast hinterland for the two special administrative regions.

 

This is an abstract of the Chamber’s Greater Bay Area Committee webinar “Hong Kong’s Role in the Greater Bay Area during the 14th Five-Year Period”.