Greater Bay Area to bring new growth impetus to Hong Kong: chief executive

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will certainly bring new opportunities to the region and provide Hong Kong with new impetus to grow its economy and improve people's livelihood, said Carrie Lam, chief executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR).

The ability to leverage on its strengths and international connectivity has enabled Hong Kong to excel in the major national strategic initiative, she said at the Bloomberg Invest Asia Summit, which was held in Hong Kong on Thursday.

She said for several decades, Hong Kong has been good at connecting economies, companies, people and ideas, and Hong Kong has long been the multilevel bridge between the Chinese mainland and the rest of the world.

Work on the Greater Bay Area is progressing well and fast, she said, noting that the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area was promulgated by the central government on Feb. 18.

She said a high-level leading group was set up last year to provide overall steer and effective coordination, and for the first time, the chief executives of the Hong Kong SAR and the Macao SAR are members of this central leadership group.

The leading group has already met twice, giving clear indications and directions on a range of issues, notably the development of an international innovation and technology hub in the Greater Bay Area, she said.

Tangible measures have been rolled out to facilitate free flow of people, goods and capital, among others, in the Greater Bay Area, including two tax measures much welcomed by the people of Hong Kong, she said.

The Greater Bay Area highlights the economic growth opportunities for Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR and the nine Guangdong cities that make up the city cluster of 70 million people, according to Lam.

Peter T. Grauer, Chairman of Bloomberg, said the Greater Bay Area initiative is "unparalleled to anything that I've personally seen in terms of scale and scope."

He believed that the Greater Bay Area development will bring new connectivity to the region and it is an exciting new economic growth opportunity.

It will be up to the business and public sector leaders to work together and find those synergies across many industries and markets in which to operate and invest, he said.