MR CHAN KIN-POR (in Cantonese): President, Members of the Legislative Council earlier paid a fact-finding visit to the Bay Area. We have long since heard of the rapid development in the Mainland, but the things we saw with our own eyes this time around really impress us very deeply. We saw many achievements in this visit. In the field of cutting-edge technologies, we visited the China Spallation Neutron Source facility in Dongguan. In the area of financial technology, we saw the WeBank of Shenzhen. And, in the sphere of technological application in people’s daily life, we visited the Shenzhen Traffic Police Intelligent Traffic Command Center. I believe that after the visit, all of us will agree that Hong Kong must catch up at full throttle.
I think the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area is set to become a new locomotive of Hong Kong’s development and a new way out for the city. Actually, the Hong Kong economy is heavily tilted towards the financial and real estate industries, and this gives Hong Kong a veneer of prosperity. But underneath this, the local market has kept shrinking, driving our city to live off its savings. At the same time, our competitiveness has kept dwindling due to the lack of progress. Recently, Hong Kong has been overtaken by the United States and lost the top competitiveness ranking to it. The alarm has already been sounded. The seriously deformed economy has inflicted many adverse consequences on our society, the most notable example being young people’s lack of opportunities for upward mobility. To solve these problems, we must open up wider prospects for Hong Kong. The development of the Bay Area will certainly be an important impetus for Hong Kong’s economic growth in the future.
And, the advent of the Internet age has seen the disappearance of geographic markets, meaning that the sales of Hong Kong goods and services are no longer limited to local consumers. Rather, the scope of sales can be expanded to Bay Area cities. In this way, our business opportunities will increase exponentially, unleashing huge development potentials for Hong Kong. Meanwhile, the completion of the Express Rail Link (“XRL”) and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will see the formation of a 1.5-hour living circle. This means that Hong Kong people can turn to other Bay Area cities both as markets and as places of living. Hong Kong must stop isolating itself. It must participate in Bay Area development as soon as possible. If Hong Kong keeps ignoring all these and continues to count on its tiny home market at present, its marginalization will be unavoidable.
As a financial and commercial centre of the world, Hong Kong possesses large numbers of professional talents and can thus provide Bay Area cities with various financial and commercial services. It may, for example, provide services to the innovation and technology (“I&T”) enterprises in the Bay Area, assisting them in financing or expanding overseas. In this way, our financial industry can grow bigger and stronger. And, with assistance from the I&T enterprises in the Bay Area, Hong Kong can at the same time develop its own financial technologies, so as to consolidate its status as a financial centre of the world. We know that Hong Kong faces a shortage of technological talents. But over there in Guangzhou University Town, there are 300 000 tertiary students, and every year 50 000 students will graduate. These are people with expertise in all sorts of professional disciplines, and they can definitely boost the development of the I&T industry in Hong Kong, enabling it to turn scientific research results into commercial products and create more I&T job for young people in Hong Kong.
At this very time when the Central Authorities are about to announce the development plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area, we hope that the Central Authorities can introduce barrier-removing measures that can assist Hong Kong enterprises and professionals in developing their business and career in the Bay Area. We also hope that the Central Authorities can roll out measures to better assist those Hong Kong people who wish to live, study, work, or set up new businesses in the Bay Area. I am sure the SAR Government must be all ready by now, and many enterprises are likewise all set to expand their businesses in the Mainland. But I think we must note one point here. Yes, the Bay Area is about to witness massive development, and this will bring forth many more opportunities for interactions among people in the area. But we should note that many Hong Kong people, young people especially, have rarely visited the Mainland, so the lifestyle and culture over there may be a bit strange to them. They may thus form some wrong ideas or may even be misled by others. The Government must therefore make more publicity efforts to clarify the matter. I believe that once people have chances to visit the Bay Area and get to know the development over there, they will realize that the Bay Area is simply a vast land of opportunities. That way, unnecessary misunderstanding can be dispelled in many cases.
I also wish to talk about what the insurance sector expects of the Bay Area. The insurance sector wants to enter the Bay Area market. It hopes that the Government can ask the Central Authorities to accord national treatment to Hong Kong-registered companies in the Bay Area. It hopes that the entry threshold can be lowered, and wholly-owned insurance companies can be allowed to operate in the Bay Area. If the proposal is implemented, the Hong Kong insurance sector will have vast room for development.
Furthermore, the Hong Kong Federation of Insurers also proposes a scheme called “Bay Area Medical Insurance” under which insurance companies in Hong Kong or the Bay Area are permitted to use the Internet as a channel of selling approved medical and critical illness insurance products to resident in the area. The Hong Kong Federation of Insurers can set up a platform for the scheme so that residents in the area can choose insurance products suitable for them. Insurance companies can also ally with well-established hospitals in the Bay Area to provide one-stop medical services for the insured. It is proposed that a one-way purchase scheme be first tried out in the Hong Kong, and that two-way purchase be allowed when the operation of the platform become mature. At that time, the scheme can be extended beyond the Bay Area, especially to places which are relatively remote, so as to benefit more residents.
The greatest merit of this scheme is that transactions are handled via an electronic platform which can properly handle the issue of cross-boundary capital flows. There is no need to worry about people using insurance products as a means of capital flight and the products are protected by the laws of Hong Kong. Also, operating on an electronic platform, the scheme allows most of the formalities, including enrolment, declaration, claims submission, claims settlement and premium payment, to be completed online. This can help encourage technological development in the Hong Kong insurance sector. We believe that this is a win-win scheme which can tie in with the development strategy of the country, benefit residents in the area and help promote the development of the sector. I so submit.