Gov’t collects opinions for Greater Bay Area development

Starting from yesterday until June 28, the local government is calling the public to share their opinions with the government in regard to the cosmopolitan development plans for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area.

Earlier, in March, China’s premier Li Keqiang endorsed a plan to turn the area around the Pearl River estuary into a “cluster” of cities and promised a strategic plan for the development to be unveiled in the future.

“We will draw up a plan for the development of a city cluster in the Guangdong- Hong Kong-Macau Great Bay Area, giving full play to the distinctive strengths of Hong Kong and Macau, and elevating their positions and roles in China’s economic development and opening up,” said Li.

During a press conference organized yesterday at the government headquarters, Kou Chi Hung, consultant of the chief executive, noted that this specific calling for public opinions is different from the city’s previous public consultations as the MSAR government will not be the party responsible for drafting a conclusive scheme regarding the development plan.

According to Kou, after the government receives opinions from the local communities, it will deliver all collected opinions to the central government, which will in turn refer to these opinions when writing the final version of the development plan of the Greater Bay Area.

In particular, the central government will refer to these opinions to draft a part of the final report that directly concerns Macau.

The Greater Bay Area involves both SARs and nine cities in Guangdong.

Kou noted that the Greater Bay Area concept will fall under the China’s Belt and Road strategy and he claimed that the Portuguese aspects will unquestionably be included in the Greater Bay Area development.

As explained by Kou, Macau can participate in the development of the Greater Bay Area either independently or jointly with other parties, for instance the Portuguese- speaking countries. Moreover, according to Kou, the government expects Macau residents who live in Guangdong to reap equal benefits as the Guangdong residents.

Kou declared that the government looks forward to “Macau residents being regarded as [Guangdong’s] local residents.”

In addition, Kou expressed no concern about whether the Greater Bay Area development will merge Macau with the mainland excessively.

Previously, the government called for public opinions regarding the development of the Greater Bay Area, assigning a 15-day time window for collecting opinions.

Lao Pun Lap, director of the Policy Research Office (GEP), revealed that the government will issue a statement in different stages regarding the development plan.

He also informed that anyone interested in sharing their opinions can visit the GEP website or the Chief Executive office’s website where they can enter their opinions as comments.