Hengqin to reclaim more land to supply SARs

The Methods on Promoting Hengqin New Area as China Guangdong Free Trade Zone (FTZ) Pilot Zone by Zhuhai Special Economic Zone were released on Monday. A series of supporting policies, including supporting Hengqin having more reclamation land scientifically and appropriately – to ‘directionally supply’ to Hong Kong and Macau – were part of the measures proposed. The Director of the Administrative Committee of Hengqin New Area, Niu Jing, revealed at a press conference announcing the first municipal-level guidelines supporting the development of an FTZ, that the size of the land reclamation can be up to 27.9 square kilometre, which is almost the size of the existing construction land on Hengqin Island of 28 square kilometre, which is also approximately the size of the Macau SAR. Mr. Niu said that the State Council of the People’s Republic of China has approved the reclaimed land zone proposal of Hengqin Island, according to Chinese media reports. The proposal is still undergoing evaluation by experts as well as waiting for environmental impact reports by marine scientists. Next, the land reclamation plan will be handed to the State Oceanic Administration. After its authorisation, the exact location, size and use of the plot will be announced. The municipal policy also mandates that in terms of Zhuhai’s annual land use plan target, Hengqin area will be prioritised. Benefiting SARs Different rules will apply to Hengqin, said Niu Jing, who indicated that in order to better facilitate companies from Hong Kong and Macau, a new list of legal responsibilities would be drawn up to deal with situations where some operations may be deemed legal in the SARs but deemed illegal in Mainland China. The Methods also mention supporting high-end medical service co-operation between Guangdong and Macau; supporting SARs-financed travel agencies to provide services for Mainland Chinese to travel abroad; and encouraging the establishment of companies that specialise in foreign equity investment in order to support cross-border renminbi business, among other measures that benefit the SARs. Mr. Niu also said that currently Hengqin has a plan to borrow up to 1.6 billion renminbi from Macau. Companies registered in Hengqin can directly go to Macau financial institutions for cross-border loans. In addition, Mr. Liu said that the discussion pertaining to Macau cars entering Hengqin has been proceeding smoothly and has entered the final stage. He believes the policy will be launched soon. Meanwhile, following the 24-hour border crossing in Cotai/Hengqin launched last year, more innovative measures are on the way, such as ‘one spot, two inspections’ to shorten the border crossing time for Macau residents.