“What we've seen with the newly issued plan is really a step change in terms of the scale of what's happening in Qianhai,” said Stephen Phillips, Director General of InvestHK, a department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government responsible for foreign direct investment (FDI). “People see a bigger pie, a bigger cake being created.”
In terms of legal services, according to the plan for further developing Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation zone in Qianhai (the Plan), there will be a higher level of opening up in legal matters; an international legal services centre and an international commercial dispute resolution centre will be established in the region.
“Hong Kong law firms are quite enthusiastic about being able to form partnership associations with mainland law firms in the GBA,” said Jimmy Chiang, Associate Director General of InvestHK. Many of the lawyers have already started preparing for the GBA Legal Professional Examination in order to “practice in the region as soon as possible”.
Phillips also sees a huge opportunity for the cooperation in the cutting-edge area of financial development, such as “internationalization of RMB, green finance, green bonds, ESG”. “The internationalization of RMB will benefit Hong Kong as an investment conduit in both directions”, where international investors will be attracted to Hong Kong, while mainland enterprises will use Hong Kong as a springboard for international expansion, Chiang added.
(Poster: Mia)
Moreover, the opportunities “are offered not only to the people of Hong Kong but also to the entire GBA”, said David Wong, Head of Greater Bay Area Business Development at InvestHK. Companies in various sectors, from “business and profession services to food companies, to innovation and technology companies”, are “interested in setting up in the GBA through Hong Kong”, according to Chiang.
Wong referred to a Singaporean food company, which has expanded to Shenzhen through Hong Kong, as a typical example of “taking advantage of the consumer purchasing power” in the GBA.
Now, InvestHK and Shenzhen are jointly promoting new opportunities arising from the Plan to international market players, and the efforts have paid off. Chiang found that all the speakers were talking about the Plan when he attended a webinar organized by the Law Society of Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Wong received more online feedback than usual from his serial articles discussing Qianhai and Hengqin.
Although the Plan is drawing worldwide attention, Phillips still warned that “if people of Hong Kong, the companies of Hong Kong don't put their energy, passion, drive into leveraging benefits, then Hong Kong could potentially lose eyes.” “The outcome depends on how much effort people put into it,” said Phillips.
Reporter | Keane
Author | Lydia
Video | Zoey
Editor | Wing, Jerry
