Since the development plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area was unveiled in February last year, the nine cities in Guangdong province involved have started encouraging young people from Hong Kong and Macao to develop their careers on the Chinese mainland by providing them with incentives, such as places to work, subsidies and accommodation.
Nonetheless, it appears that young Hong Kong people aren’t that interested. Apart from the ongoing social unrest in Hong Kong, there are other obstacles that discourage Hong Kong residents from embracing the Bay Area.
The suggestions call for the SAR government to first quell the violence and social unrest, and then establish a commission dedicated to coordinating resources of HKSAR offices on the mainland, chambers of commerce and other relevant associations, which are all intended to facilitate young talents from Hong Kong to pursue their careers in the Bay Area
The first is the lack of awareness of the development opportunities on offer in the Bay Area, possibly due to inadequate understanding or a misconception about the mainland’s social system and development. After Hong Kong’s economy took off in the 1970s, rarely did young people consider working on the mainland. It was not until manufacturing industries began relocating to the Pearl River Delta in the 1990s that Hong Kong residents with the necessary skills started taking up jobs on the mainland. Although Hong Kong was hit hard by the 1998 financial tsunami, it did not transform the city’s economic structure. Therefore, except for the financial and real estate sectors, revenues of other industries have remained stagnant. The glorious past of the Hong Kong economy is slowly dimming against the backdrop of the rapid development on the mainland, yet young people in Hong Kong have yet to realize that their future may very well be awaiting them on the mainland.
Although the central government had released the Bay Area’s development almost a year ago, the unrest in Hong Kong has disrupted the city’s economic integration with the Bay Area.
The second obstacle is the lack of access to information on the region’s development. While the HKSAR government has set up a GBA Development Office, its core function is to enhance liaison and coordination between the SAR government and mainland authorities, as well as to supervise the overall progress of the Bay Area’s development. However, it’s not tasked with facilitating Hong Kong people in developing their careers there. As many Hong Kong residents are not familiar with the nine Bay Area cities in Guangdong, it’s difficult for them to step into the area without the help of intermediaries. The HKSAR government can help by acquiring public services or subsidizing NGOs to provide services in the Bay Area, such as seeking jobs, starting a business, pursuing higher education, applying for business licenses and so on. As success stories about career development increase, more Hong Kong residents will be motivated to follow suit in the Bay Area.
To tackle the lack of information and services in the Bay Area, the SAR government must take action to promote the development initiative. It could collaborate with mainland cities to hold seminars on the Bay Area on university campuses and/or in public and private housing estates. Professional groups should also be mobilized to introduce the region and answer queries from the public.
Hong Kong and Guangdong can join hands in developing housing estates for Hong Kong residents on the mainland. Employers can purchase apartments and rent them to their professional employees, and encourage their high-caliber staff to commit to long-term services by transferring property ownership to them as a performance bonus after they have made adequate contributions to the company, which can be calculated in terms of their accession to executive positions or the amount of their accumulated salary taxes. Housing expenses for Hong Kong residents working in the Bay Area should be negotiated and shared proportionally between the SAR government and the Guangdong authorities. As long as both authorities engage in dialogue, I believe they can certainly come up with more practical proposals to retain young talents and other professionals to work and live in the Bay Area.
An important aspect of integrating Hong Kong into the Bay Area is to encourage young talents to work on the mainland. Therefore, managing the recruitment channels is crucial. As far as I know, many State-owned enterprises based in Hong Kong have been cooperating with the Education Ministry to recruit Hong Kong students graduating from mainland universities. The SAR government can endorse similar practices to help mainland enterprises recruit Hong Kong students, who could choose to work on the mainland or in Hong Kong. This will help raise their competitiveness.
Hong Kong-based companies should also be encouraged to recruit young people who are interested in working in the Bay Area. To do so, they need to provide job applicants with all the information about working and living on the mainland. In addition to relevant information, follow-up support should be offered to help them adapt to life on the mainland.
On the other hand, the practice of organizing sightseeing visits to the mainland should be changed because it’s not effective enough in educating young people from Hong Kong to recognize their Chinese nationality. They should be encouraged to view and think in local residents’ shoes by spending some time in the Bay Area, preferably in grassroots communities. Encouraging them to be “immersed” in those communities should give them a sense of belonging on the mainland.
Many Hong Kong students tend to feel alienated from the local community on the mainland. In fact, there’s readily a solution to this challenge — that is to make friends with mainland college students who are studying in Hong Kong. The more interaction between the two groups, the more familiar Hong Kong students will become with the mainland’s lifestyle and way of thinking specific to local communities. Each year, Hong Kong universities admit more than 20,000 students from different regions on the mainland. Their diverse social and family backgrounds are valuable human resources to Hong Kong talents.
The above suggestions call for the SAR government to first quell the violence and social unrest, and then establish a commission dedicated to coordinating resources of HKSAR offices on the mainland, chambers of commerce and other relevant associations, which are all intended to facilitate young talents from Hong Kong to pursue their careers in the Bay Area.
I urge Hong Kong youths to read and understand in detail the Bay Area’s development plan so that they’ll know how to find a place that actually needs their talent.
The author is a research fellow with the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
