HKSAR symposium reaches consensus on economic integration with mainland

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, August 25, 2002

HKSAR symposium reaches consensus on economic integration with mainland

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The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)'s continuous economic prosperity will require the HKSAR economy to be effectively linked up with the mainland economy -- such was the consensus reached at a symposium Saturday in Hong Kong.

Economics academics, political party leaders, executive councilors and the Hong Kong SAR government reached the consensus at a symposium held by the HKSAR Commerce, Industry and Trade Bureau, the local Ming Pao newspaper and Cable TV to discuss ways of pump-priming the Hong Kong economy in order to create employment opportunities.

A ductus that flowed through the various sessions of the whole symposium is that the Hong Kong SAR's economy should be developed in compatibility with the economic development of the mainland, particularly the nearby Pearl River Delta in the areas of logistics, transport, technology, industry and financial and value-added services.

Economic cooperation between the Hong Kong SAR and the Pearl River Delta and the Guangdong Province, in fact, pre-dates Hong Kong's return to the motherland on July 1, 1997. But the dean of the Faculty of the Economics and Commerce at the University of Hong Kong, Richard Wong, said greater efforts are now needed for more systematic infrastructural planning between the HKSAR government, the Macao SAR government and the Guangdong Provincial government to flesh out details on plans for a Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao linking bridge.

Wong said the bridge will promote closer logistical cooperation between the three places to allow the three parties to enjoy collective cost-effectiveness. But the proposal for such a bridge has been all talk but no action for the past 20 years.

"To increase Hong Kong's competitiveness is now almost synonymous with increasing the Pearl River Delta's competitiveness. We now need to look at where the reluctance and momentum are," he said.

Cheng Kwok Hon, head of the Economics Department of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), expressed hopes that the Central government will increase its input in playing coordinating role in developing the region to mediate the interests of all parties.

However, an even more macroscopic view was taken of the development on the mainland. Victor Fung, chairman of the Airport Authority here said he believed not just the Pearl River Delta will be a very competitive base for businesses. He said with China having entered the World Trade Organization now and the ensuing volume of trade being pumped up, the whole of China is expected to be the most competitive country vis-a-vis other countries in the time to come.

Henry Tang, the HKSAR secretary for commerce, industry and technology, concurred with Fung, saying that the creative and design industry combines well with the manufacturing on the mainland and has been churning out some of the most innovative yetcost-effective products in the world. He cited some ingeniously designed coffee cups he came across recently as the case in point.

Now with Hong Kong people's attained proficiency through years of experience in various fields, it is a matter of how such proficient knowledge and experience are translated into profitability and wages in the light of the new economic outlook. Cheng Kwok Hon of the HKUST proposed that the Hong Kong SAR can refer to Switzerland as the role model to exemplify in terms of its ability to emulate a selected group of industries, such as the financial, tourism, pharmaceutical and watch making businesses.

"It might not be that a country or a region had to be number one in its every industry. But what is essential is that it had a considerable strength and competitiveness in them.... What some people said about Hong Kong now completely lacking in competitiveness is simply untrue," he said.

Cheng said he still believed developing the high-tech and innovation industries is the way out for Hong Kong.

On the development of the financial industry, Cheng said if the industry here can prove itself to be on par or even supersede the international standard, Hong Kong should not fear any competition from anywhere.

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