Editor’s notes: China will deliver its Government Work Report on March 5, which will shed light on the country’s development in 2021 and its plans for 2022. What will be your focus on China in 2022? GDToday & Newsgd.com present the “China’s Prospects 2022” and invite people from different sectors to share their insight into the country.
As Hong Kong is going through its fifth wave of COVID-19, it poses challenges for China to deal with Omicron at the opening of 2022. The Chinese mainland is aiding Hong Kong by sending medical staff and supplies, building facilities in this harsh battle. Allan Zeman, Chairman of Lan Kwai Fong Group, shared his observation in Hong Kong with Newsgd.com & GDToday in a recent interview.
China is helping Hong Kong combat Omicron
With this wave, Hong Kong public health system is under great pressure due to the overwhelming situation.
Zeman told GDToday reporter, “The medical practitioners in Hong Kong are very happy because there's good advice from experts of the Chinese mainland. We are also looking forward to Guangdong’s help as well as these professionals that are coming to offer help with this challenge.”
Chinese mainland sent out critical care medical specialists, COVID-19 sampling team, and most importantly the “dynamic zero-COVID” approach. Three teams of medical experts from the mainland have arrived in Hong Kong to work with the HKSAR government in fighting the latest COVID-19 outbreak, according to Xinhua.
In addition, some slaughterhouses in Hong Kong were shut down after cases were detected. It has led to a shortage of food. “The Chinese mainland then started to deliver a lot of food by boat. That's how to bring food back as for a while the food prices were going up because there was a shortage on meat supply.” Zeman said, adding that “China's helping a lot on everything.”
Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Zhongshan and other cities in Guangdong have successively opened regular routes to Hong Kong. About 810 cargo ships can transport materials to Hong Kong. A total of 4000 containers arrived in Hong Kong by way of Shenzhen’s new "maritime express" in 9 days.
Zhong Nanshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, believes Hong Kong will win the battle against the current COVID-19 outbreak with support from the Chinese mainland. He said, “We will not tolerate any natural infection that leads to a large number of deaths of senior residents.”
“What they're going to do is get everybody tested in all the districts. And then overnight send the testing (samples) to the labs in Guangdong.” Zeman explained, “The medical professionals are helping Hong Kong a lot. They have rapid tests. Many people are doing rapid tests now at home.”
When asked about the “dynamic zero-COVID” approach, Zeman said “dynamic zero” doesn't mean getting zero cases, but conducting mass testing as soon as there is an outbreak, isolating infected patients and trying to get it down. He believes it is a very good approach if the government can control the situation quickly.
“China has such a huge population,” he said, adding “It will really get unmanageable if the outbreak was out of control. In Hong Kong, that's why we're here.”
On Tuesday (March 1), a makeshift hospital in Hong Kong’s Tsing Yi community for COVID-19 patients began operation. The hospital, built in a week, has 3,900 isolation beds for patients with mild symptoms or who are asymptomatic. It is the first of nine such facilities to be built with the help of the central government as the city battles its fifth coronavirus outbreak, according to China Daily.
On Wednesday (March 2), the first train with aid supplies started operating from Shenzhen, carrying 18 containers and about 50 tons of epidemic prevention materials, and arrived at the freight yard of Luohu railway in Hong Kong. Guangdong now can send supplies to Hong Kong via land, water and rail.
China’s development is still promising in 2022
While Hong Kong’s COVID-19 pandemic remains to be quelled, Allan Zeman has confidence in China’s development in 2022, owning to the way they were able to control the virus. He is still positive about China's GDP this year: “China is not only the second largest economy in the world, but also the fastest growing economy in the world.”
Statistics show that in 2021, China’s GDP registered an increase of 8.1% over the previous year and an average growth of 5.1% in the past two years. In the last year, the total value of imports and exports of goods increased by 21.4 percent over the previous year.
“We have Lan Kwai Fong in Chengdu, and some projects plan for Xi’an. We've also got another project in Shenzhen; we believe very strongly in the Greater Bay Area, the GBA.” Said Zeman as he expressed his confidence.
In his opinion, it will play a game changer for the three places, a promising area with a GDP of over USD 1,668.8 billion in 2020. As for the prospects for business field, his emphasis is to look at real estate, F&B and new technologies. “We have a lot of faith in China, and believe in the future for Hong Kong,” Zeman said.
Reporter | Hannah
Video | Chen Weifeng, Wan Wenlong, Lu Li, Xie Haoran, Lin Yaohua, Axin, Li Xindi, Chen Chen, Liu Yurong (intern)
Subtitle | Reese (intern), Hannah
Editor | Wing, Steven, Jasmine, Jerry
