(Yicai Global) May 4 -- Hong Kong’s integration into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will bring huge opportunities to the special administrative region, according to a former chief executive.

Development of the Greater Bay Area will also benefit from Hong Kong’s incorporation into the megalopolis, Leung Chun-ying, who is now vice-chair of the National Committee of the 13th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said at a student-run university forum in the United States last week.

Hong Kong must re-embrace opportunities for a transition, Leung said in his keynote speech to the 2022 UChicago Graduate China Forum. The SAR is not only a window for the transit of trade, but also a super-connector between the Chinese mainland, the Greater Bay Area, Guangdong province, and countries around the world, he noted.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Hong Kong and other cities in the Great Bay Area were very closely linked, he said, with labor, capital, and entrepreneurs flowing back and forth and the parties overcoming differences and barriers in currencies and tariff zones.

Leung said he hoped to see barriers removed and synergies formed between Hong Kong and mainland cities with them working closely together.

The Greater Bay Area, which covers 53,000 square kilometers and comprises nine cities in Guangdong plus Hong Kong and Macao, has a population of 80 million. Its gross domestic product was USD2 trillion last year.

Leung said he also hopes to see more reform and opening-up by the mainland, to which Hong Kong can contribute. For instance, the mainland allows Hongkongers working in Shenzhen’s Qianhai, Zhuhai’s Hengqin, and Guangzhou’s Nansha districts to pay personal taxes at Hong Kong rates, which are lower than in the mainland, and allows surgeons in Shenzhen to use drugs and medical gear from Hong Kong without approval from the local authorities, he noted.

Editor: Futura Costaglione