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HK, Shanghai: More Partners Than Competitors
Hong Kong and Shanghai are strategic partners serving as engines for growth in the Asia- Pacific region and gateways to China, rather than head-on competitors, an economist said Monday.
Regardless of competition, Hong Kong is Shanghai's largest investor and the fourth most important trading partner. "Hong Kong investment in Shanghai has brought not only capital but also management expertise," said Hong Kong Trade Development Council's Chief Economist Edward Leung.
"On the other hand, newly unfolded opportunities in Shanghai provide Hong Kong companies with a strong bridgehead for extending their business in the Yangtze River Delta," Leung said in releasing a TDC's report which addresses the competition and complementarity between the two cities from different economic perspectives.
Leung thought that the emergence of Shanghai will not diminish the middleman role of Hong Kong.
"They bridge trade and investment flows to different regions of the mainland. Hong Kong is the economic locomotive in the Pearl River Delta, while Shanghai plays a similar role in the Yangtze River Delta," he said.
Leung predicted that if the economies of Hong Kong and Shanghai both continue to grow at their respective average rates as for the last decade, it will take about 15 years for Shanghai to catch up in terms of the total size of the economy. It will take about 20 years for Shanghai to catch up in terms of per capita income.
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