Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Winners 2020 | Page 22

Winning Entries
Non-Fiction – Group 2
WINNER
Future Facts of the Greater-Bay-Area
Ying Wa Primary School, Lee, Ching Ho Jadon – 11
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area or simply Greater Bay Area (GBA)
is a megalopolis, which is the Chinese Government’s master plan for Hong Kong, Macau and
nine more cities in Guangdong Province, with an arm to build a business and technology hub.
The GBA consists of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan,
Jiangmen, Huizhou, as well as Hong Kong and Macau. These eleven cities will establish
themselves as key hubs for different sectors: Hong Kong will be the international finance
navigation and trade centre as well as a transport hub; Macau will be an international tourism
city and a platform for trades with Portuguese speaking countries like Brazil; Guangzhou will
take a leading role as an administrative hub while Shenzhen will expand its leading role as a
special economic zone and tech hub; Dongguan is transforming itself from the world’s factory
into more of a high-tech manufacturing base. Other cities in the region will also be involved,
with the government already spending billions on massive infrastructure projects.
With a total population of 67.65 million residing across a total area of 56,500, this
region is one of the most developed and vibrant areas in China. Featuring three of the
world’s top ten ports in Shenzhen (3rd), HK(5th) and Guangzhou(7th), the GBA represented
approximately 12.5% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016. The
development of the GBA initiative is designed to strengthen infrastructure linkages among
the cities involved. In fact, the existing GBA already possesses notable economic strength and
is comparable to the other leading bay areas around the world.
Apparently, the GBA scheme brought quite an excitement to many start-ups in Hong
Kong as they look forward to the benefits of being a part of a vast market of 70 million people.
Recently, the Hong Kong Economic Journal (HKEJ) sat down with ISTOP founder, Tyler
Mok, who shared his views about the opportunities in the GBA. Mok thinks that the GBA is a
once-in-a-century opportunity for start-ups in Hong Kong. Although the mainland start-ups
possess certain advantages in terms of human resources, the strength of Hong Kong start-ups
lies in their ability to innovate and their global vision for business. For start-ups that have the
ambition to enter the GBA, they should approach by seeking projects and products that are
scarce in the domestic market there. Take health food, medicines and care products, in these
categories, products from Hong Kong brands can give mainland consumers greater confidence.
Creating the GBA of the future means both addressing the opportunities and challenges
that the region faces. There are three main expectations that the GBA would like to
achieve at around 2050. First, the GBA expects its cities to foster further economic reform
and openings in the future. The GBA is supposed to be an experimental zone for further
economic reform and opening in China as a whole. Second, the GBA also would like to
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