The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government should take the lead in helping the city’s manufacturers to upgrade and transform their operations in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Chinese Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong urged on Wednesday.
The association, which represents more than 3,000 member companies from various sectors of trade and industry, said Hong Kong manufacturers that have invested in the Bay Area have made great contributions to economic development in both Guangdong province and the SAR.
To facilitate their technological transformation and upgrading in Guangdong, the association said the SAR government should designate a higher level inter-departmental task force to distribute resources for synergetic development, and strengthen cooperation with local governments in the province.
The CMA had authorized Lingnan University’s China Economic Research Program to conduct a year-long study on the operations and contributions of Hong Kong manufacturers in the Bay Area.
The study, the results of which were released on Wednesday, covered 400 manufacturers in the nine mainland cities involved in the Bay Area’s development.
It showed that as of 2018, there were 21,345 Hong Kong manufacturers with investments in the nine cities, including Shenzhen, Huizhou, Dongguan, Guangzhou and Zhongshan. Total registered capital stood at 317 billion yuan (US$44.74 billion).
On their contributions to Hong Kong’s economy, the report said most of the enterprises with factories in Guangdong have their headquarters in Hong Kong. Most of them used Hong Kong’s professional services, especially in fundraising, logistics and warehouse management, spending nearly HK$30 billion (US$3.87 billion) in 2017 alone.
Amid a fast-changing business environment and new policies on the mainland, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, the report noted that nearly 60 percent of the Hong Kong manufacturers in Guangdong have switched from over-reliance on exports to sales in the domestic market.
At the same time, they’re attaching greater importance to original design and branding for products, as well as automation and the application of technology in the production and distribution lines.
To facilitate the overall upgrade of these enterprises, the report urged the SAR government to take the lead in helping them with their needs in Guangdong, and in distributing their resources both in the SAR and on the mainland so that they could raise productivity and competitiveness amid a challenging global environment.
