By Nelson Moura and José Carlos Matias
EU businesses in Hong Kong and Macau are overall positive on the opportunities offered by the Greater Bay Area but there is the lack of a clear detailed plan that could clarify how they can tale advantage of it, the Head of the EU Office to Hong Kong and Macau, Thomas Gnocchi, said in an interview with Macau News Agency (MNA).
“The GBA is a great project which undoubtedly has formidable economic potential. In my short time in post in Hong Kong and Macau, I have already witnessed the strong political willpower in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau to strengthen integration within the region. Impressive infrastructure projects have already been implemented and different measures have been adopted, including promoting movement of people and facilitating market access across the border,” Gnocchi expressed.
However for the EU representative, the GBA also raises questions in terms of how to bring together three different economic, legal, tax, and custom systems, with the European businesses still unclear how they can make the best out of the integration project.
“EU businesses in Hong Kong and Macau […] sometimes point out a lack of clarity/visibility on how the GBA will concretely take shape and in term of how their businesses would actually benefit best from the plan,” Gnocchi added.
EU watching Macau’s GBA role with “a lot of interest”
Under the Greater Bay Area development plan rolled out by Beijing, Macau’s its role as a tourism and leisure center as well as a platform for economic cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries were defined as strengths that could be developed and used within the project, with plans to further develop the city’s financial sector also put forward later.
“In the economic and business sphere, Macau has ambitious plans to develop itself as a connector between China and the world in areas such as trade and finance. The EU, as a main economic and trading partner of both Macau and Mainland China, is watching these developments with a lot of interest,” the EU representative noted.
When addressing if the current US-China trade war and rising tensions were impacting EU business interests in the region, Gnocchi underlined that such tensions “did not benefit anyone” and went against the principles of multilateralism defended by the European bloc.
“The US and China are two major economic powers which means that rising tensions between the two can have far-reaching consequences on other players, especially as these tensions are not limited to trade anymore. When two large economies implement tariff and protectionist measures, it is not good news for the world economy as a whole,” Gnocchi told MNA.
“The EU on another hand strongly believes in multilateralism as the only way ahead. Many EU businesses are in Hong Kong and Macau to connect with the Chinese market or have production facilities and suppliers in China, so they have legitimate reasons to be concerned”.
Exclusive MNA interview with Thomas Gnocchi: Read Part 1 and Part 2
