Experts interpret Hong Kong’s first five-year plan: Promote two-way integration and advancement in the Greater Bay Area

China News Service, Hong Kong, September 23 (Reporter Qiu Zhaoxiang) The "First Five-Year Plan for the Economic and Social Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2026-2030)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Hong Kong First Five-Year Plan") was recently announced. In recent interviews with reporters from China News Service, a number of experts and scholars said that the plan will promote two-way integration and complementary advantages between Hong Kong and other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (hereinafter referred to as the "Greater Bay Area") in aspects such as institutional connection, infrastructure interconnection, personnel exchanges, and information circulation. It will also be a major leap forward in the development level of the Greater Bay Area.

Hong Kong's first five-year plan will "deepen the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and build a global cooperation network" into a separate chapter. It will focus on detailed planning from multiple perspectives such as technological innovation cooperation, infrastructure, linkage of rules and mechanisms, and cross-border flow of factors to promote the coordinated development of "hard connectivity" and "soft connectivity".

Liang Haiming, a Hong Kong economist and director of the Silk Road Intelligent Valley Research Institute, believes that this plan will help promote the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area from "city agglomeration" to "integration". He said that from building bridges in the past to laying a "new track" for data and information, the flow of people, logistics, data, and capital have realized low-cost and high-efficiency circulation in the Greater Bay Area, allowing Hong Kong's financial and professional services to extend to more mainland Chinese cities; the mainland's manufacturing and scientific and technological innovation capabilities can also use Hong Kong as a hub to accurately connect with the global market.

In terms of building Hong Kong into an international aviation hub, the plan puts forward clear requirements for the proportion of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) used by flights departing from Hong Kong International Airport. Lin Shaobo, CEO of Cathay Pacific Group, said that the development of the SAF production base in Dongguan and fuel blending facilities in Hong Kong will help increase the supply and affordability of SAF in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and build an internationally competitive SAF industry chain.

Regarding the construction of the Loop Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone (hereinafter referred to as the "Loop") and the Northern Metropolitan Area (hereinafter referred to as the "Beidu"), which are key layouts in Hong Kong's first five-year plan, Lin Shaobo said that the two major cooperation platforms perform their respective duties in the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macao Science and Technology Innovation Corridor. The Loop is a "system converter" for cross-border scientific and technological innovation cooperation, converting Hong Kong's international rules, Shenzhen's scientific and technological innovation ecology, and the country's strategic needs into an operable cross-border cooperation mechanism. Beidu assumes the central function, taking over the scientific research resources and innovation achievements of the Loop upwards, linking downwards with Hong Kong's financial market, and promoting the industrialization, capitalization and internationalization of innovative achievements.

Talking about "realizing the "heart-to-heart connection" of residents of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao" mentioned in Hong Kong's first five-year plan, Guan Haoming, a member of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong SAR, believes that this is an excellent opportunity for Hong Kong youth to integrate into and build the Greater Bay Area. Plan detailed arrangements for university cooperation, exchanges and internships, employment and entrepreneurship between Hong Kong and other cities in the Greater Bay Area to break through Hong Kong’s resource and space limitations, so that Hong Kong youth can obtain good opportunities for personal development and achieve real improvement.

Guan Haoming emphasized that in-depth participation in the construction of the Greater Bay Area can enable Hong Kong youth to truly feel the vitality and dividends of the development of the Greater Bay Area, further enhance their sense of belonging and identity in the Greater Bay Area, deepen their feelings for their family and country, and strengthen their national self-confidence.

Liang Haiming said that the process of transforming Hong Kong's first five-year plan from paper to ground into real competitiveness in the next five years is also the path for Hong Kong to integrate more deeply into the construction of the Greater Bay Area and integrate into and serve the overall development of the country. This will not only promote the diversified development of Hong Kong and resolve deep-seated development contradictions, but also represent a major leap forward in the development level of the Greater Bay Area.