China News Agency, Beijing, February 25th: What is the new expectation of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to accelerate interoperability?
China News Agency reporter Zhang Xiaoxi
2023 is the fourth anniversary of the promulgation and implementation of the "Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area", and it will also be the year when personnel exchanges between the Mainland and Hong Kong and Macau will fully resume after the epidemic.
The construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which has been pressed the "accelerator button", has attracted the attention of all parties, and is expected to become one of the hot spots at this year's National Two Sessions.
Looking back on the past four years: a series of policies provide important support
In the past four years, the central government has issued a series of policies to support the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, covering industries, talents, innovation and technology, and other aspects.
Xie Laifeng, deputy director of the Hong Kong, Macao and Regional Development Research Institute of the China (Shenzhen) Comprehensive Development Research Institute, pointed out in an interview with a reporter from China News Agency that the central government has issued a series of support policies and plans for three major national platforms in Hengqin, Qianhai, and Nansha. The construction of the Greater Bay Area provides important support; a number of major infrastructure projects continue to advance, coupled with the rule convergence mechanism moving to a wider area and deeper level, the internal connectivity of the Greater Bay Area has become closer.
Data map: The scenery of Hengqin Guangdong-Macao Deep Cooperation Zone.
Photo by Gong Shengnan
Huang Guo, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Hong Kong and chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, who has been concerned about social and people's livelihood issues for a long time, said that in the past four years, many policies have been implemented to facilitate people from Hong Kong and Macau to study, work and live in the Mainland, especially the Greater Bay Area, and some policies have been affected by the epidemic. There are still problems in implementation.
However, with the full resumption of personnel exchanges between the Mainland and Hong Kong and Macau, the integration of the Greater Bay Area will undoubtedly accelerate, which will help to better promote the construction of the Greater Bay Area.
According to Wu Zhiliang, a member of the CPPCC National Committee of Macao and chairman of the Macao Foundation Administrative Committee, in the past four years, relevant institutions have been established in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao to conduct substantive research on many specific issues.
Affected by the epidemic, the connectivity between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao was temporarily blocked, which also gave everyone a new understanding of the construction of the Greater Bay Area, that is, only by closer integration can common progress and development be achieved.
Focus on the present: comprehensive customs clearance to speed up communication
On the first working day after the Lunar New Year, Guangdong held a provincial high-quality development conference, emphasizing that it will highlight the deepening of cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and establish and coordinate the implementation of the annual task list of major issues and major projects in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
On February 3, Ho Iat Seng, the Chief Executive of the Macao SAR, led a delegation to visit Guangdong and met with Huang Kunming, Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Wang Weizhong, Governor of Guangdong Province, to further deepen Guangdong-Macao cooperation, the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Hengqin Guangdong-Macao Deep Cooperation Zone building.
The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Li Jiachao, led a delegation to visit Guangzhou and Shenzhen on February 23, starting his first visit to mainland cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area after taking office.
Li Jiachao said that in the future, he will also visit other mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area and the Macao Special Administrative Region to jointly discuss the promotion of high-quality development in the Greater Bay Area, inject greater development momentum into Hong Kong and the entire Greater Bay Area, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.
The government is "very busy", and non-governmental exchanges in the three places are also "heating up".
On February 6, the first day when Hong Kong and the mainland resumed comprehensive customs clearance, about 220,000 people entered and exited through various land control points (the total number of people entered and exited on that day was about 280,000).
In addition, business people have resumed exchanges and mutual visits, tourism cooperation has also been further promoted, and related industries are expected to usher in a recovery.
Liang Meifen, a member of the Hong Kong National People's Congress and a member of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, told China News Agency that under the challenges of the epidemic in the past three years, the synergy effect of the cities in the Greater Bay Area has not been highlighted, but with the comprehensive customs clearance, the exchanges and communication between the three places will be closer Therefore, each city must grasp its characteristics, give full play to its advantages, and promote the overall construction of the Greater Bay Area.
Data map: On January 4th, the transport frame integrated ship is erecting the last piece of box girder of the non-navigation hole bridge of the deep middle channel.
Photo by Su Zhenfei issued by China News Agency
Looking forward to the future: injecting strong impetus into national development
By the time of the National Two Sessions in 2022, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has been included in the government work report for six consecutive years.
In the eyes of various observers, the construction of the Greater Bay Area will remain a hot topic in this year's two sessions.
Bi Yanying, professor and deputy dean of the School of International Relations, believes that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is the best area for both domestic reform frontiers and economic globalization factors, and looks forward to exploring a new model of Chinese-style modernization development in the future.
As the frontier of national scientific and technological innovation and development, the Greater Bay Area can give full play to the advantages of influential universities, scientific research institutions, high-tech enterprises and large-scale national scientific projects in the region, attract and gather the world's cutting-edge scientific and technological talents, and fully utilize global technological innovation Resources, contribute to the world's technological innovation and development.
Some experts believe that the better development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area in the future requires the governments of the three places to cooperate more closely, and the synergy between Hong Kong, Macau and the Mainland at the planning and policy levels must continue to be strengthened; In the process, some hidden thresholds or institutional obstacles still need to be systematically sorted out and key breakthroughs are made.
"In the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong and Macao must first try to establish a closer all-round cooperative relationship. Relatively speaking, it is easier to connect the rules of the two places." Wu Zhiliang believes that Hong Kong and Macao should also fully realize that only through the Greater Bay Only by integrating the region into national development can we fully rely on our advantages to achieve our own breakthroughs.
A number of deputies to the National People’s Congress and members of the CPPCC from Hong Kong and Macao who were interviewed by reporters from China News Agency said that they will focus on the flow of people, goods, information and capital in the Greater Bay Area, and they are also concerned about the flow of people from Hong Kong and Macao to the mainland of the Bay Area. Opportunities and possible problems of urban development, and foster new advantages in international cooperation.
All parties have strong expectations that the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will usher in an "acceleration period".
With the comprehensive advancement of interconnection and interoperability, the Greater Bay Area has accumulated more powerful energy, which will better demonstrate China's new development, and become a world-class bay area favored by talents from all over the country and even the world, and suitable for living and working.
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