The Luohu District Government of Shenzhen has earlier launched four concentrated contiguous area development plans, including Lot B1 of the transit land adjacent to the Luohu Port. The local authorities said that they would consider introducing the MTR East Rail Line into Lo Wu and implementing "co-location testing" at the rebuilt Lo Wu Port. In the future, passengers who will take the East Rail Line will be able to travel directly from Luohu, the core area of Shenzhen, to the core area of Hong Kong Island in about 50 minutes.
Just last week, the National Exit and Entry Administration announced that eight new mainland cities will be open to Hong Kong and Macao from the 27th of this month. Kevin Yeung, Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said that the gradual enhancement of the Individual Visit Programme will contribute to Hong Kong's economic development and benefit the retail, catering, hotel and other industries.
Behind the gradual two-way movement of the people of the two places is the closer cooperation and dependence between Hong Kong and the mainland.
01
Take the subway to Shenzhen
At a time when it has become a trend for Hong Kong people to move north, taking the MTR from Hong Kong to the Lo Wu Port is not new.
According to the Immigration Department, there were 433,875 departures from Hong Kong yesterday (12th), of which about 350,000 went to the Mainland through different control points, 66% more than the 210,000 passengers in the previous Saturday. The Luohu Port has become the first choice for Hong Kong people to leave the country, and the number of Hong Kong people leaving the country through Luohu is as high as 100,000.
In addition, data from the Immigration Department shows that during the May Day Golden Week in the Mainland this year, more than 120,000 Mainland visitors entered Hong Kong through the Lo Wu Port, of which nearly 35,000 Mainland visitors entered Hong Kong through Lo Wu on May 3 alone.
Shenzhen Luohu Port (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
Chinese mainland As the port with the longest history connecting the mainland and Hong Kong, the Luohu Port, which has been open for 73 years, has not only become a witness for the people of Hong Kong and Shenzhen to travel in both directions, but also a window for exchanges between Shenzhen and the world.
Lot B1 was originally owned by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and later incorporated into Shenzhen. The land is adjacent to the Luohu Port and the Shenzhen Railway Station. According to Hong Kong media reports, Luohu is committed to building a "super connecting place" between Hong Kong and the mainland to connect resources and allocate resources.
Zuo Jinping, mayor of Luohu District, said that through the superposition of policy advantages and location advantages, it will build a demonstration park for cross-border cooperation between strategic emerging industries and modern service industries, focusing on life and health, cross-border finance and international trade, and actively develop high value-added industries such as artificial intelligence, cross-border insurance, cross-border e-commerce, and medical devices, and lay out strategic emerging industries and future industries.
"We want it to become the first stop for overseas enterprises to 'come in' and a bridgehead for domestic enterprises to 'go out'." Zuo Jinping told the media.
Shenzhen Luohu Port (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
02
Free travel everywhere
"Leveraging Hong Kong's unique characteristics to provide visitors with more, newer and more diverse travel experiences." Yang Yunxiong said on social media.
According to the National Exit and Entry Administration, the eight new mainland cities that are open to Hong Kong and Macao are Taiyuan, Shanxi, Harbin, Heilongjiang, Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, Xining in Qinghai Province, Yinchuan in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Urumqi in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and Hohhot in Inner Mongolia. Together with Xi'an and Qingdao, which have been open since 6 March, a total of 59 cities in Chinese mainland have been included in the Individual Visit Scheme.
According to Macao government data, a total of 2.434 million arrivals and departures were recorded in the first four days of the May Day Golden Week (1 to 4 days), up 11.6% year-on-year, with a total of 532,000 visitors visiting Macao, while as of 5 pm on the 5th, more than 56,000 arrivals and departures were recorded respectively. According to data from the Hong Kong Immigration Department, as of 9 o'clock on the 5th, about 760,000 mainland tourists visited Hong Kong during the entire holiday, close to the previous estimate of 800,000, an increase of 21% compared with last year's Labor Day holiday; The number of tourists from other countries or regions is about 140,000, an increase of 40% compared with last year's May Day holiday.
Tourists shopping in Causeway Bay (Source: Ta Kung Wenhui)
In the face of increasingly fierce competition, Hong Kong's tourism industry has seen new hope in expanding the scope of individual visits.
Chen Zongyi, chief operating officer of Miramar Group, said in a radio program that for the hotel industry, May to June is the off-season every year, and it is a very timely policy to add new independent travel cities at this time. He pointed out that the new policy will have a great boost to Hong Kong, and that the more long-haul tourists there are, the more it will help Hong Kong's tourism mix, namely hotels, restaurants and retail.
However, at present, Hong Kong does not have direct flights to the eight new cities. According to the official website of Hong Kong International Airport, only Taiyuan, Lanzhou, Yinchuan and Urumqi currently have direct flights to Hong Kong. Legislative Council member for the wholesale and retail sector, Shiu Ka-fai, told the media that solving the shipping problem is currently the priority, and it would be best if there were direct flights to and from Hong Kong from eight cities. In addition, he added that for some tourists who may be ethnic minorities, the industry will closely monitor the situation and adjust their strategies in a timely manner.
Even though Hong Kong is not fully prepared to welcome new tourists in terms of shipping, Shao believes that the city has always had its advantages, such as being home to many international brands, food safety, close proximity to attractions and easy access. According to an article published in February by the British travel magazine Time Out, Hong Kong ranks 7th in the ranking of the world's best public transport, ahead of cities such as London, Paris and New York.
Hong Kong International Airport (Source: Information Services Department)
03
Rely on each other
With the acceleration of the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, more and more Hong Kong universities are running schools in the mainland.
In addition to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist United International College and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), the City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) was officially established by the Ministry of Education last month, and Hong Kong universities such as the University of Hong Kong are also preparing to build campuses in other cities in the Greater Bay Area.
According to the QS World University Rankings 2024, Hong Kong has five universities ranked in the top 100 in the world. The cross-border development of Hong Kong higher education institutions has brought great support to improving the quality of higher education in the Pearl River Delta region.
Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) Campus (Source: Hong Kong Chinese Shenzhen Official X Account)
In Hong Kong's most advantageous financial sector, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) announced five capital market cooperation measures on April 19 to help Hong Kong consolidate and enhance its status as an international financial centre and jointly promote the coordinated development of the capital markets of the two places. The specific contents include: 1. Relaxing the scope of eligible products for equity ETFs (exchange-traded index securities investment funds) under Stock Connect; 2. Incorporate REITs (infrastructure securities investment funds) into the Stock Connect; 3. Support the inclusion of RMB stock trading counters in Hong Kong Stock Connect; 4. Optimize the mutual recognition of funds arrangement; 5. Support leading enterprises in mainland industries to list in Hong Kong.
Zhou Hao, chief economist of Guotai Junan International, said in the article that the introduction of these policies means that the policy support for Hong Kong stocks is gradually increasing, and attracting more mainland funds and institutional investors will be an important cornerstone of Hong Kong stocks in the future.
"Each city in the Greater Bay Area will no longer struggle independently, and everyone will gradually form an organic integration." Huang Jinhui, deputy dean of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Chinese of Hong Kong, told mainland media.
Text | Feng Jihong
Reporter of Hong Kong Economic Herald
This article is an original manuscript produced by the Hong Kong Economic Herald
Reproduction is subject to authorization and the source is indicated