Advertisement
Why did China’s vice-premier travel south to meet Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam?
- Han Zheng holds rare southern meeting of leading group on developing Greater Bay Area
- Beijing is showing it wants to get down to business in turning the ambitious blueprint into a reality, observers say
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
25
Cross-border technological collaboration took centre stage when Chinese Vice-Premier Han Zheng met Hong Kong’s leader in Guangzhou on the Greater Bay Area regional integration plan on Thursday.
Advertisement
Previously, such high-level talks took place in Beijing and involved Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor along with the constitutional affairs chief. But by making a rare trip south to meet Lam, her ministers in charge of technology and financial services, as well as local officials, Han showed that Beijing was keen to move beyond mere talk and start focusing on implementation, analysts said.
“The central government expects the Greater Bay Area [project] to enter a phase where more concrete work should be delivered,” said Hui Ching, research director of policy think tank the Hong Kong Zhi Ming Institute. “More of the leading group’s meetings may be held in Guangdong in the future.”
The Greater Bay Area blueprint calls for turning Hong Kong, Macau and nine Guangdong cities into a megalopolis focused on innovation and technology to rival other powerhouses such as Silicon Valley.
A source told the Post Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng was also in Guangzhou on Thursday and met Han separately.
The talks marked the first time Beijing’s leading group for developing the Bay Area had officially met since November 2019 – months before the coronavirus pandemic broke out – and the first time the vice-premier held talks devoted to a specific theme with the leaders of Hong Kong and Macau in Guangdong’s provincial capital.
Advertisement
Hong Kong’s constitutional and mainland affairs chief, as well as the director of the Chief Executive’s Office, had previously accompanied Lam to the leading group meetings, but this time it was the city’s technology and financial services chief who travelled with her to attend the talks.
Advertisement