Closer integration with mainland to benefit HK: China Daily editorial

The first Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Shopping Festival opened on Thursday.

Among the more than 13 million commodities of about 298,000 brands from over 100 industries appearing in the three-week online shopping festival, those from Hong Kong and Macao are especially popular with consumers on the Chinese mainland.

Accessing one of the world's largest consumer markets is exactly what Hong Kong enterprises need, given the sustained pressure they have had to endure because of the months of rioting followed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

And there is great potential for the special administrative region to tap by embedding itself deeper into the development pattern of the world's second-largest economy.

On Aug 28, the National Development and Reform Commission held the third conference with the HKSAR government on supporting Hong Kong to fully engage in Belt and Road projects.

This was the latest demonstration that in the face of the sanctions the United States has imposed on Hong Kong, and the US' efforts to cause an exodus of investments and businesses from the city, the mainland is offering staunch support to the SAR.

With the mainland now deeply integrated into the global system and pursuing further opening-up, Hong Kong needs to adapt to the changed situation as it can no longer rely solely on its traditional role only as a gateway to the mainland. It needs to better integrate into the development of the Greater Bay Area and strive to take advantage of the Belt and Road Initiative, and other national development designs, plans and programs that the mainland is rolling out.

That is not to say that its traditional advantages need to be forsworn. For example, with the mainland pressing ahead with the institutional reforms in finance, governance and business environment construction, Hong Kong can leverage its traditional advantages as a financial center by acting as a reference for the mainland to calibrate its reforms.

There is no doubt that Hong Kong will continue to be a vigorous global financial, logistics and trade hub. But with the development of the Greater Bay Area accelerating, the SAR also needs to look to the future by establishing world-class science and technology innovation centers, refining its gateway role to be a connector for the mainland's domestic and overseas circulations and strengthening itself as an offshore renminbi market as the country rolls out the digital renminbi.

The enactment of the National Security Law of Hong Kong and other legal measures provide the necessary guarantees for social stability in the SAR, allowing the government to focus on boosting the economy and people's livelihoods by better dovetailing Hong Kong's economic development with the mainland's.