The growing enthusiasm among Hong Kong residents for heading north to enjoy cost-effective spending has become the talk of the town recently. Many worry that it is hurting the local economy. The local catering and retail industries are indeed suffering.

Nevertheless, if we examine the issue from another perspective, the current predicament may help rekindle Hong Kong’s fighting spirit and accelerate the integration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) in the long run.

The development of the GBA has become one of the key national strategic plans. The project aims to leverage the complementary advantages of the 11 participating cities in the Pearl River Delta region and develop the GBA into a world-class city cluster where living, working and traveling is ideal.

The post-pandemic northbound leisure-travel fever that Hong Kong people have developed is strengthening interactions among residents from different GBA cities. Hong Kong residents can experience firsthand the latest developments in the southern coastal cities. Many are amazed by the enhanced infrastructure, software improvements within the catering and retail services, and the digital convenience available within some major GBA cities following the three-year lockdown. These advances could serve as an eye-opener for Hong Kong residents who previously seldom went north because of the stereotypical beliefs they held about the mainland.

Hong Kong’s future well-being conceivably hinges on its ability to further integrate into national development without losing its unique qualities — a good mix of Chinese, Asian and Western cultures, as well as its capitalist market economy and common law system

Skeptics of the GBA project have argued that Hong Kong’s business competitiveness will be further weakened if the northbound consumption trend continues. That is just a matter of opinion and of whether we still have faith in the future of Hong Kong.

Undeniably, the costs of operating a business in Hong Kong are relatively high, and it is not easy for businesses to cut costs and reduce prices. Meanwhile, local catering and retail industries have long been criticized for failing to deliver services that justify their charges. The northbound spending fever has served as a wake-up call for these two sectors to act swiftly to improve the quality and standards of their services in order to restore Hong Kong’s diminished reputation as a food and shopping paradise.

Put simply, the two sectors really must improve their services if they want to retain local customers.

Another significant aspect of the economic reality Hong Kong faces is that other GBA cities are catching up so fast that the city is no longer the economic center of the Pearl River Delta region, even though it still has an edge in some areas. 

To shore up its economic prowess, the Hong Kong community must also reignite the city’s long-lost fighting spirit and rediscover the sense of solidarity and flexibility that had helped to transform the city from a small fishing village into a global financial and trade center. 

We need to make use of our collective wisdom to think outside the box on how to boost the local economy and raise its overall competitiveness. 

Hong Kong’s future well-being conceivably hinges on its ability to further integrate into national development without losing its unique qualities — a good mix of Chinese, Asian and Western cultures, as well as its capitalist market economy and common law system. 

The “one country, two systems” policy — specifically designed for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan — already provides the framework and solution; and the GBA is a good starting point for Hong Kong to accelerate the integration process.

In fact, to speed up the integration process, the central government, the Guangdong provincial government, the Shenzhen municipal government and the governments of the Hong Kong SAR and the Macao SAR have put huge efforts over recent years into upgrading the infrastructure, living environment, investment and working conditions in the city cluster to create a “one-hour living circle”. 

Megaprojects such as the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge were completed to shorten the intercity traveling time. 

Another big project, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge is expected to be completed next year, while world-class airport and port clusters are also under construction. 

Incentives have also been launched in the three key development zones of Qianhai, Nansha and Hengqin in the GBA to encourage Hong Kong and Macao residents and companies to work or operate businesses there, including low-rent housing, cash allowances, tax rebates and benefits in healthcare, employment, and education.

The development of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone (HTCZ) along the Shenzhen River, which comprises the 302-hectare Shenzhen Park and the 87-hectare Hong Kong Park, is also conducive to the integration process.

The cooperation zone project is intended to facilitate the two cities to establish an efficient Shenzhen-Hong Kong technology innovation synergistic mechanism by 2025 by putting to good use their unique advantages. By 2035, a Shenzhen-Hong Kong synergistic innovation configuration is expected to be fully formed to attract top-notch science and technology professionals and investment from around the world, building the area into a global innovation hub as well as a key engine driving national and global growth.

The construction of infrastructure in the Shenzhen Park has been carried out rapidly, while that in the Hong Kong Park has been relatively slow. 

The HKSAR government needs to speed up the construction of the Hong Kong Park, not least because the HTCZ project is synergistic with Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis project, which aims to transform the northern part of the city into a vibrant urban area within 20 years.

The central government has always reserved a role for Hong Kong in all major national strategies such as the GBA and the Belt and Road Initiative. It has also supported Hong Kong in its application to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to expand the city’s economic and trading ties in the Asia-Pacific region.

All in all, the GBA, BRI and RCEP are important to Hong Kong because they offer vast opportunities for local university students, professionals and entrepreneurs for career and business growth in the years to come. They provide shortcuts for Hong Kong to regain its economic prowess. 

If Hong Kong can fully leverage the advantages it enjoys under “one country, two systems”, and shift its “superconnector” function into top gear, it is guaranteed to usher in another golden era.

The author, a Hong Kong-based freelance writer, is an adviser to the Hong Kong Association of Media Veterans.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.