Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Winners 2020 | Page 33

Hong Kong Young Writers Awards 2020 support Macau as a training base for talented entrepreneurs who are fluent in both Chinese and Portuguese, hence turning the area into an education and training base. The initiative is an economic enticement for Hong Kong and Macau to start building stronger ties with the mainland. It will also greatly benefit Hong Kong’s economy as the plan brings about the movement of capital and goods. With this, local companies may attract more investment, attain a better yield in the stock market, as well as providing Hong Kong businesses with a more substantial stake market in the mainland. Developing the GBA into an international financial hub would make it an important component of the One Belt, One Road initiative, thus it would encourage the development of Macau into a Sino-Portuguese stage for financial services. This would support the development of specialised financial products in the city as the overseas experience of Hong Kong businesses would help GBA companies in their efforts to “go global”, which would be an important factor in the city’s future success. On one hand, Hong Kong’s status as an international connector should naturally enable the city to promote the GBA initiative overseas and attract more capital and talents therein for further development. Hong Kong could benefit from integration with Guangdong by gaining greater access to the Chinese market in the financial and professional services sector. Hong Kong only exports 7.5% of all its financial services to China - about a third of what it exports to the United Kingdom. This exportation of financial expertise is significantly lower than it perhaps should be considering Hong Kong’s close relationship and geographical location in relation to the mainland. By transferring financial expertise from city to city within the GBA, each city or major city of the area would enjoy benefits in the finance industry by directly increasing GDP growth through promoting domestic investment and growth through capital imports and reducing consumption volatility. Transferring financial expertise leads to healthy competition among the GBA cities as well as internationally, thus making a more effective financial system. Also, it provides information on the vital areas of investment, like property in Hong Kong, and can hence lead to effective capital allocation, subsequently increasing GDP growth. More importantly, it promotes the integration of the economy and facilitates the easy flow of capital. The free transfer of funds and expertise would eventually result in more equality among the cities that are a part of that same financial system. Originally a sparsely populated collection of coastal islands, Macau has become the top destination for gambling tourism and a major resort city in Asia. The territory is the ninth-highest recipient of tourism revenue and its gambling industry is seven times larger than that of Las Vegas, earning its nickname the “Las Vegas of Asia”. The city has a severe income inequality despite having one of the highest per capita incomes in the world at 96,570 Macanese paceta dollars in 2016 (according to the World Bank). In addition, Macau’s GDP per capita by purchasing power parity (PPP) is one of the highest in the world and higher than any other country in 2017 (World Bank), thus showing the need for the other cities’ financial expertise to promote the capital growth of Macau itself. Over the years, Macau has prioritised gambling, tourism, and resort development which has created a narrow economic base. The GBA however, could diversify its economy away from its reliance on gambling to focus on tourism, financial services, entertainment, cultural events, as well as boost its role as a ‘knowledge centre’. For instance, Macau may focus more on its openness abroad, namely by becoming a reference point in China for cultural and academic relations not only with Portuguese-speaking countries but also with Spanish-speaking countries - especially given the ease of connecting Portugal and Brazil with the Iberian world, thus boosting its role as a ‘knowledge centre’ 38