Hong Kong’s 5-year plan must focus on what the city does best

Success will depend on three mutually reinforcing pillars – deeper integration with the mainland, seamless connectivity across the border and greater contribution to the national economy.

To achieve greater convergence with mainland China’s technology-driven economy, Hong Kong is building science and technology parks in the Northern Metropolis, a region spanning 30,000 hectares bordering Shenzhen. Yet a service-based economy cannot build a globally competitive technology cluster from scratch. Hong Kong’s success will depend on combining the mainland’s scientific and technological strengths with the city’s internationally connected capital markets, universities and legal institutions.

Hong Kong being a special administrative region of China but a separate legal jurisdiction and customs territory under the World Trade Organization, deeper integration with the Chinese mainland requires ingenious schemes to overcome existing hurdles that inhibit the free movement of people, goods, capital, data and intangible assets.

Authorities in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong have invested heavily in physical infrastructure that allows for the movement of large numbers of passengers across the border. Eight land control points for travel by road or by rail are already in place between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and at least one more is in the pipeline.