On 18 November 2023, Prof. Anthony Cheung, former Secretary for Transport and Housing, Advisor and former President at EdUHK, Adjunct Professor of PPOL, HKUST; Prof. Lui Tai-lok, Adjunct Research Chair Professor, former Vice President (R&D) at EdUHK; Prof. Heiwai Tang, Victor and William Fung Professor in Economics, Director of the Asia Global Institute, and Associate Dean for External Relations of Business School at HKU; Prof. Xun Wu, Professor of Innovation, Policy and Entrepreneurship, Society Hub at HKUST (GZ), together with Prof. Peter Tsan Yin Cheung, Professor of Practice in the Department of Social Sciences, EdUHK as moderator to discuss the topic “Hong Kong in Greater Bay Area: Pioneer or Follower?” Prof. A. Cheung started the discussion by reaf rming that Hong Kong is part of the GBA. The question to be asked is whether Hong Kong is an active player and takes the lead in the GBA, the fastest-growing region of China. Referring to the “Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area”, Prof. A. Cheung pointed out that the essence of the Plan for the GBA is forward- looking and externally oriented, but due to the geopolitical changes in the past few years, some of the assumptions behind these objectives may have been affected, yet the goals are always relevant to Hong Kong. Prof. A. Cheung remarked that the GBA serves both Hong Kong’s needs and national aspirations and helps Hong Kong’s third economic transformation. He said Hong Kong has always been playing the intermediary role between China and the rest of the world, but with the change of geopolitical context, this role needs rede nition. From the 21st century onwards, according to Prof. A. Cheung’s observation, China has gone into coordinated regional developments. GBA is one such instance, but these regional developments have been facing challenges, such as unbalanced economic growth between the Southern and Northern parts of China, greater gaps in terms of innovation capacity among regions, dif culties in ensuring equitable access to basic public services, and slow growth of the blue economy, in addition to the recent Covid and geopolitical challenges. Prof. Tang approached the question from the economic perspective of how to enhance Hong Kong’s competitiveness. He explained that the globalisation we have today is very different from the one before 2008. Looking back at the history of Hong Kong from 1949 to 2008, Prof. Tang led the audience to see how Hong Kong had adapted according to the changes in China and the rest of the world. However, the fast deindustrialisation that Hong Kong's economy has been going through poses a problem since Hong Kong has been overly relying on the four-pillar industries ( nance, tourism, trading and logistics, and professional services, contributing around 60% of Hong Kong’s GDP, Hong Kong in the Greater Bay Area: Pioneer or Follower? PUBLIC POLICY DIALOGUE SERIES 19
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