Integration with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has been a top priority of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government ever since the signing of the framework agreement for deepening cooperation between Guangdong, Macao and Hong Kong in July 2017. The prolonged riots from 2019 to early 2020, followed by three years of COVID-19 pandemic-induced closures, forcibly disrupted the process. But soon after Hong Kong reopened to the mainland in early 2023, the cross-boundary movement of people increased by leaps and bounds. The enthusiastic way Hong Kong residents embraced the joys of visiting Shenzhen and other GBA cities upended the local economy.

During the period from March 28 to April 2, a record 3.6 million Hong Kong residents went north via land control points, compared with 860,000 mainland residents who traveled south. On May 1, at the start of the Golden Week, 167,894 Hong Kong residents traveled north compared with 160,559 mainland residents who visited our city, way below pre-pandemic levels. The “hollowing out” effect of mainland attractions has reached crisis proportions for Hong Kong’s retail and low-end catering industries.

The government is pulling out all the stops to increase Hong Kong’s attractiveness. Yet, apart from coping with daily pressures, the government ought to sit back and think strategically about what GBA integration means to Hong Kong.

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The government needs to think hard about three questions: How will GBA integration transform Hong Kong? What are the challenges and opportunities posed by GBA integration? How will the government maximize the benefits of GBA integration?

Such pivoting to the GBA would require a radical rethink on the part of the HKSAR government of its population policy, urban and social welfare planning. The private sector would also need to adjust its development plans to adapt to new trends of living and spending

GBA integration will have a long-term transformation effect on Hong Kong. Under the government’s Northern Metropolis development plan, three more railways will be constructed to connect Hong Kong’s northern districts to the mainland. When the construction of these railways is completed, many among the estimated 2.5 million residents in the Northern Metropolis will find it more convenient to travel to the mainland than to Hong Kong Island. As the mainland GBA cities become more sophisticated, more Hong Kong residents might wish to move to the mainland, or live there and commute to Hong Kong on a daily basis.

While some people might worry about the “hollowing out” of Hong Kong, the migration of Hong Kong’s population to the mainland is no bad thing. For a long time, Hong Kong residents have been stuck in congested and expensive housing conditions because they are boxed in by Hong Kong’s artificial boundary, and unable to take advantage of better housing conditions in nearby suburbs. The improvement of transport links, coupled with better medical and schooling facilities in nearby GBA cities, would enable more Hong Kong residents to live comfortably north of the boundary.

Such pivoting to the GBA would require a radical rethink on the part of the HKSAR government of its population policy, urban and social welfare planning. The private sector would also need to adjust its development plans to adapt to new trends of living and spending.

With a total population of 86 million and a combined GDP of $2 trillion, there have been high hopes that the GBA will become the world’s most dynamic region. Given the barriers to the free movement of goods, services, people, capital and data because of Hong Kong’s status as a separate customs and immigration area under the “one country, two systems” principle, Hong Kong needs to work out how to overcome these constraints to take advantage of the abundant resources of GBA cities. The process has not been easy, but the HKSAR government appears to have found ways to work around these constraints to achieve win-win solutions.

To enable more elderly living on social security payments to retire in Guangdong and Fujian provinces, the government relaxed the Hong Kong residential period required under the Guangdong and Fujian retirement programs

The key to unlocking the potential of the region lies in working out ways to complement Hong Kong and the mainland GBA cities in their developmental strategies. For example, Hong Kong lacks land to build residential care homes for the elderly. Both Hong Kong and mainland GBA cities stand to benefit by enabling more elderly people from Hong Kong to retire on the mainland.

To enable more elderly living on social security payments to retire in Guangdong and Fujian provinces, the government relaxed the Hong Kong residential period required under the Guangdong and Fujian retirement programs. The government has taken a further step forward by adding residential care homes jointly operated by Hong Kong and mainland service providers in Guangdong to serve as “recognized service providers” under the “Residential Care Services Scheme in Guangdong”. As of May 6, two more such homes in Foshan and Shenzhen were added, bringing the total of such homes to four. The government is planning to bring residential care homes operated solely by mainland service providers under this program.

The HKSAR government also lacks land to provide quarters for retired junior members of the Disciplined Services and other civil servants. As more junior civil servants are prepared to retire in nearby GBA cities, the government should explore the possibility of buying land or readily available housing units in mainland GBA cities to provide homes for those willing to retire on the mainland.

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To relieve our acute labor shortage in many occupations, the government has relaxed labor import programs to enable the Airport Authority, transport operators and the construction industry to import labor from the mainland. Mainland GBA cities can help Hong Kong build the innovation and technology hubs in the Northern Metropolis by sending us their tech talents, engineers, and tech enterprises that want to use Hong Kong as a launchpad for their international operations. These tech entrepreneurs can draw on the deep pool of research in medical and life sciences and other disciplines in Hong Kong’s top universities to enhance their competitiveness.

In return, Hong Kong can help mainland GBA cities further develop their service economies, especially in the financial, business and other professional sectors.

The Shenzhen government reported in January that the city’s “social and consumption expenditure” grew by 7.8 percent and topped 1 trillion yuan ($138 billion) in 2023. Fang Zhou, a noted scholar, estimated that Hong Kong consumers contributed to the growth. Let Hong Kong, Shenzhen and other GBA cities grow together, complementing each other, helping each other remedy their respective shortfalls and weaknesses. By combining their strengths, the GBA stands a good chance of becoming the nation’s dynamo for growth.

The author is convener of the Executive Council and a legislator.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.