Details of the Plan released in February are scarce but this has not prevented most Chinese and non-Chinese observers from expressing great enthusiasm for the idea.
MB October Special Report | GBA: Greater Expectations
What the Plan says
‘By 2035, the Greater Bay Area should become an economic system and mode of development mainly supported by innovation, with its economic and technological strengths vastly increased and its international competitiveness and influence further strengthened; the markets within the Greater Bay Area should basically be highly connected, with very effective and efficient flow of various resources and factors of production; the co-ordination of regional development should remarkably improve, with the influence on neighbouring regions further strengthened; the people should become wealthier; the level of social civility should reach new heights, with cultural soft power demonstrably strengthened, Chinese cultural influence broadened and deepened, and exchange and integration between different cultures further enhanced; the levels of conservation and efficient use of resources should be significantly improved, the ecological environment should be effectively protected, and an international first-class bay area for living, working and travelling should be fully developed’.
Vague
‘Given the high profile attached to the official release of the GBA blueprint, the development plan itself was remarkably vague and dwelt largely on themes that have already been well explored,’ points out a report from The Economist.
The subject is developed by Nisha Gopalan, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist: “The blueprint’s failure to delineate clearly how Hong Kong’s status will be protected suggests either that the Bay Area plan is more hype than practical programme or that political objectives will trump economic considerations. Neither conclusion is comforting.”
In the pages of Macau Business, Senior Analyst José Duarte writes that “the blueprint (…) is a long document, strong on ambition, less so on detail”.