A draft plan to turn the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao greater bay area into the world’s largest of its kind in terms of GDP by 2030, projected at US$4.62 trillion, has been filed with the national economic planner, reported the Xinhua News Agency.
This greater bay area has greater development potential compared with the world's major bay areas, Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, was quoted as saying by Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly.
China’s greater bay area, covering 11 cities, has a promising development space compared to the existing Tokyo, New York and San Francisco bay areas that only depend on one city to drive the economy, according to Zheng. In addition, the Pearl River Delta has a diverse range of cultures and industries, even though China’s other regions, such as Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations, are comparatively sized. The greater bay area, Zheng stated, could attract worldwide capital and play a critical role in social development.
However, the main factor thwarting the integration of resources, Zheng stressed, is administration segmentation, referring to a lack of cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. To cope with this, Zheng proposed “unilateral openness,” meaning that Guangdong Province could initially open its markets, such as labor and real estate, to Hong Kong and Macao.
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