By Tu Haiming

At the invitation of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, Shen Chunyao, chairman of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, and Commerce Minister Wang Wentao visited Hong Kong to explain the guiding principles of the third plenum of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee.

The two central government officials’ elaborations have deepened Hong Kong society’s understanding of the guidance and principles set in the third plenum for national development, helping residents better realize that the city must proactively undertake reforms in the wake of changes in both the internal and external environments to promote its own socioeconomic development while contributing to national development.

The Resolution on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization, adopted at the third plenum of the 20th CPC Central Committee, states that “reform and opening-up have been crucial to the cause of the Party and the people, enabling us to catch up with the times in great strides”.

In interpreting this point, Shen noted that China had fallen behind the times for an extended period of time, and was able to catch up only after kicking off the reform and opening-up process in the late 1970s.

The synergy created by reform and opening-up has greatly boosted China’s productivity, which in turn fuels the country’s socioeconomic development. This sums up the valuable experience of reform and opening-up over the past 46 years. Likewise, reform has also been an effective weapon for Hong Kong to advance its socioeconomic development: The city has a good track record of thriving on change at critical moments, thanks to its ability to crack tough nuts and stimulate internal growth momentum in the process.

Hong Kong is once again at a critical moment. Internally, the city is plagued by problems such as a narrow industrial structure, a huge wealth gap, limited upward social mobility for young people, and a lack of innovative culture. Externally, there is an increasing uncertainty in the international landscape, a sluggish global economic recovery, and a growing geopolitical impact on the city. Hong Kong as a small and export-oriented economy must brace itself for potential external shocks. Although a new round of technological upgrades and industrial revolution is going on at a speed faster than anyone can imagine, Hong Kong has yet to be on the forefront of innovation.

How should Hong Kong respond to the ever-changing global landscape? Shen and Wang explained that only those who reform will advance, only those who innovate will become stronger, and only those who reform and innovate will succeed. The HKSAR administration and all quarters of society have to be prepared for potential challenges, forge a social consensus and leverage reform and opening-up, the proven winning strategy, for future development.

The resolution calls for promoting high-standard institutional opening-up, which, as explained by Wang, can be construed in four dimensions: to better align with international standards; to proactively open up on its own initiative; to better promote the development of new quality productive forces; and to foster win-win cooperation.

While Hong Kong is more internationalized and market-oriented, and has a more sophisticated legal system, there is still room for further opening-up in these four aspects.

First, having a well-developed market economy with regulations on par with international standards, Hong Kong should fully leverage its strengths to assist the Chinese mainland to establish a compliance mechanism in line with international standards.

Second, Hong Kong should harness public platforms such as the Belt and Road Initiative, pilot free trade zones, and the China Import and Export Fair, which are the exemplars of the country’s opening-up, to promote its role as a superconnector and super value-adder in facilitating foreign capital to access the mainland as well as mainland enterprises to venture abroad.

Third, as the new quality productive forces involve many new economic areas that require further opening-up and cooperation, Hong Kong should pursue reform and opening-up necessary for developing new quality productive forces, creating an environment conducive to development of new quality productive forces for both Hong Kong and the whole country.

Fourth, the third plenum calls for an equal and orderly multipolar world and universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization. Its status as an international financial center and a global metropolis, along with the staunch backing of the motherland, the second-largest economy in the world, makes Hong Kong an ideal platform for economic globalization.

The resolution calls for an innovation-driven development strategy to boost the overall performance of the country’s innovation ecosystem.

Hong Kong can look to a broad arena given its exceptional capability in fundamental scientific research and great potential for technological innovation. The city houses five universities ranked among the global top 100; it boasts more than 40 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, 16 State Key Laboratories, six branches of Chinese National Engineering Research Centers, and 28 innovative research laboratories engaging in collaboration with world-class universities and research institutions. Hong Kong is one of the few places in the world that has such a bounty of scientific research resources, an advantage that should be capitalized on to bolster its international competitiveness with technological innovation.

Following the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s example in contributing to the success of the Chang’e 6 lunar backside exploration, Hong Kong should take part in more national scientific initiatives.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong should take up a greater role in developing the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster, which has been ranked world No 2 among its competitors for many years. In this model, in which the scientific research power of Hong Kong universities synergizes with the innovative industries in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, Hong Kong should double down on its existing role to inject a greater impetus into the technology cluster.

Lastly, Hong Kong should speed up its effort to build an international hub for high-caliber talent by making breakthroughs to provide more scientific resources for the nation’s modernization drive.

The third plenum is of epoch-making significance, having profound implications for China’s future development. Hong Kong, therefore, should place its own development in the context of the country’s strategic framework, identify the right focus in light of its actualities, so as to start a new chapter on the Hong Kong section of Chinese modernization.

The author is vice-chairman of the Committee on Liaison with Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Overseas Chinese of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the Hong Kong New Era Development Thinktank.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of Bauhinia Magazine.

Source: China Daily