Guangdong is trying to establish a digitalized Greater Bay Area with Hong Kong and Macao, with unified identity authentication being a steppingstone to facilitating cross-border services and taking travel, business and people-to-people exchanges to new heights. Li Xiaoyun reports from Hong Kong.

When Hong Kong resident Brian Chau arrived at Zhuhai’s Qingmao Port, Guangdong province, a few weeks ago, he was thrilled to find that the hassle of having to spend at least half an hour in long lines to get through immigration, is now a distant memory.

Chau enters Guangdong using his Chinese mainland travel permit — commonly known as the “home return permit” — which is issued to residents of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions. He no longer has to present both his Hong Kong identity card and home return permit separately for entering or leaving the mainland through the Qingmao Port, resulting in a streamlined process that takes just a few minutes.

The first step in driving unified identity authentication lies with the government.

Zhang Yuge, director of the Department of Hong Kong, Macao and Regional Development, the China Development Institute

“Relishing the convenience of a joint boundary control system for the first time has truly expanded my horizons,” says Chau.

The 30-year-old has been shuttling between Hong Kong and Foshan city in Guangdong on the mainland to work since 2018. He took a step further in 2021 by settling down in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, establishing a branch there for a Hong Kong-based digital marketing company. He has witnessed the rapid integrated development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the role digitalization has played in accelerating the region’s integration.

Direct high-speed rail services between Hong Kong and the mainland have reduced the travel time from the SAR to Guangzhou by at least an hour, while major mainland e-payment platforms support the linking of overseas credit cards, enabling Hong Kong and Macao residents to enjoy convenient payment options on the mainland without having to open a bank account there.

In November, Guangdong unveiled a three-year action plan to build a “Digital Bay Area”, outlining seven major objectives in areas such as the flow of data, logistics and capital within the Greater Bay Area, the development of digital infrastructure, commercial activities and digital industries, as well as efficient coordination of digital governance and public services.

READ MORE: CE pledges effort to transform GBA into 'most vibrant region'

The measures, which will affect Greater Bay Area residents’ daily lives, have garnered huge attention, especially in “promoting unified identity authentication and mutual recognition of electronic signatures among residents in Hong Kong, Macao and nine Guangdong cities of the Greater Bay Area, enabling cross-boundary handling of high-frequency affairs for both enterprises and residents”.

However, the HKSAR’s Innovation, Technology, and Industry Bureau told China Daily: “We would like to clarify that unified identity authentication, as proposed in the action plan, isn’t a kind of ‘unified identity card’.”

Zhang Yuge, director of the Department of Hong Kong, Macao and Regional Development at Shenzhen-based think tank, the China Development Institute, says that unified identity authentication aims to provide the same level of convenience for holders of home return permits or mainland residence permits for Hong Kong and Macao residents — for those who have stayed on the mainland for more than six months, as for Guangdong residents engaged in fields like public services and e-commerce.

Ongoing process

The mainland authorities began accepting applications for mainland residence permits in September 2018, and Chau was among the first applicants to obtain the permit. While the favorable policies associated with this document have brought convenience to his work and life in Guangzhou, Chau believes there is still plenty of room for improvement, as it lacks recognition in some areas.

Chau notes that neither online platforms nor offline service centers of mainland telecommunications providers recognized residence permits as valid identification in 2021 when he applied for a mobile phone number. There were similar problems when he tried to open a mainland bank account, register a business, and make cross-boundary purchases on e-commerce platforms. Nor was the home return permit recognized by online channels, forcing Chau to physically go to a service center to apply for a phone number.

But through unified identity authentication, these barriers are expected to be overcome, allowing Hong Kong and Macao people holding home return or mainland residence permits to enjoy similar services, as well as efficient government and commercial services, on the mainland, like Guangdong residents.

The action plan says that achieving such an objective requires joint efforts by the government, enterprises and the community, with particular emphasis on businesses playing a leading role.

“Such an approach aligns with the conventional practices of Hong Kong, where the government is responsible for formulating policies,” said Hong Kong’s ITIB. “While the policies are implemented by the relevant government departments, subject to circumstances, a public-private partnership approach may be adopted, or corporations may also be encouraged to take part in the collaboration.”

READ MORE: Guangdong, HK ink accord to promote talent flow

Zhang says the first step in driving unified identity authentication lies with the government. It’s only when the government opens up data to qualified private entities, and establishes institutional frameworks to regulate corporate behavior that businesses can proceed with their work effectively.

In his view, the action plan represents Guangdong’s requirements for itself in propelling a digitalized Greater Bay Area and promoting cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao, but not a demand placed on enterprises or governments in the two SARs.

Nevertheless, the three parties have been making joint efforts to advance unified identity authentication and the entire blueprint for a digitalized bay area through government-enterprise collaboration.

The Cross-boundary Public Services thematic website was launched for residents and businesses in Hong Kong and the nine Guangdong cities of the Greater Bay Area in November, enabling them to handle high-frequency public services online without the need to visit relevant departments in person. Guangdong and Hong Kong have, so far, launched 54 cross-boundary government services, covering six major categories, including taxation, corporate registration, healthcare and personal identification.

In addition, iAM Smart — Hong Kong’s digital services platform — has integrated with a similar platform in Guangdong, allowing Hong Kong residents to access the provincial government services website and the corresponding app. Through such efforts, “residents in both places can enjoy more convenient cross-boundary services, and the goal of bringing convenience and facilitation to the public and businesses can thus be achieved,” the ITIB said.

In a separate move to strengthen tripartite collaboration in public services, the OneStop mini program was launched on WeChat and Alipay apps late last year. According to Wei Wentao, an official of Guangdong’s Government Services and Data Management Bureau, the mini program can provide convenient and efficient services for people working, living, and traveling in the Greater Bay Area.

With the applet, for example, mainland people visiting Hong Kong and Macao are able to make appointments to obtain travel permits, receive information from immigration offices, and buy mobile data packages designated for the two cities, while people from the SARs traveling to the mainland can also enjoy one-stop services covering customs clearance and transportation.

Far-reaching effects

Zhang says the implications and lasting effects of the proposed unified identity authentication go beyond facilitating the daily lives of residents in the 11-city cluster, highlighting the potential boost it will bring to businesses and industries. While each of the seven goals laid out in the action plan has its own focus, they are interrelated and would have a significant impact on each other, he says.

As human resources are important for achieving the other objectives, unified identity authentication, focused on the movement of people among the region, can be conducive to the flourishing of commerce and business, says Zhang.   

Chau heads a team of employees from various parts of China, offering him insights into the respective advantages of securing professionals from the two SARs and the mainland. Hong Kong employees are proficient in English, Mandarin and Cantonese, and can communicate effectively with people of diverse backgrounds, free of cultural or language barriers, he says. Thus, he believes the flow of Hong Kong talents into mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area can help local enterprises expand internationally.

The influx of young mainland people into Hong Kong, on the other hand, would alleviate the city’s manpower shortage in various industries, and the injection of fresh blood into the local labor market is expected to promote effective and healthy competition, says Chau.

Besides seeking jobs on both sides of the boundary, Zhang emphasizes the role of unified identity authentication in care for the elderly, and healthcare services.

ALSO READ: Deeper GBA ties: key to green transformation

With Hong Kong’s population aging rapidly, it is estimated that, by 2036, one in every three people will be 65 years old or above in the city. Zhang says that, with a low birthrate, achieving a natural rate of replacement is a challenging task for Hong Kong’s population.

In this context, aiding the elderly to spend their sunset years in mainland cities of the Greater Bay Area, while wooing young people through talent programs, such as the widely embraced Top Talent Pass Scheme, may help address the SAR’s population problem. Without unified identity authentication, cross-boundary medical services and medical issuance couldn’t be easily accessed, and this would discourage senior citizens from doing so.

However, Zhang believes Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao may encounter their own distinct challenges when promoting digital transformation in the region. Hong Kong lags behind in adopting digitalization despite having five world-ranking universities and leading artificial intelligence laboratories set up through collaboration among academia and industries, which have given Hong Kong solid research capacity.

Therefore, in order to embrace the transformative changes through digitalization, Hong Kong may need to break free from its conventional thinking and habits.

Contact the writer at irisli@chinadailyhk.com