Dr Jonathan Choi was re-elected as Standing Member of the 14th The National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference
(13 March 2023)
Sunwah – The first session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference finished at the Government’s Great Hall on the afternoon of the 11th March 2023. Dr. Jonathan Choi, Chairman of the Greater Bay Area Guangdong – Hong Kong – Macao Entrepreneurs Union, Chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, and Chairman of Sunwah Group, was re-elected as a Standing Member of the National Committee.
At this Conference, the Standing Committee submitted 13 proposals on many hot issues, covering areas such as economy, education, health care and Greater Bay Area’s cooperation. For example, the Committee proposed the central government to support Hong Kong with the “Hong Kong Replication Plan” proposal, which calls on the mainland to further improve the certification of Hong Kong experts, optimize the high-speed rail operation and ticketing system so that Hong Kong citizens can use this transportation method. In addition, the Committee proposed the Central Government to support Shenzhen and the “Northern metropolitan area” of Hong Kong for mutual development. Hong Kong and Shenzhen will leverage each city’s strengths through the construction of the Hetao Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone, and leverage Hong Kong’s advantages to create a high-tech digital economic zone in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.
Advise the Central government to support the joint development of Shenzhen and the “Northern metropolitan area” of Hong Kong and support the “Hong Kong Replication Plan”
Dr. Jonathan Choi, member of the Standing Committee, believed that promoting the coordinated development of the Shenzhen port economic belt and the northern metropolitan area of Hong Kong will play a special role in deepening the development of the Greater Bay Area Guangdong – Hong Kong – Macao, exploring how to better utilize the advantages of the two regions in terms of financial resources, personnel, goods, data exchange and regulations.
He also requested the Central government to support Hong Kong with the “Hong Kong Replication Plan” proposal, like “Reinventing Guangdong” program, forming a flexible framework with a specific timeline and different scope in different sectors and industries. But in general, it must include population growth; real estate development; GDP growth; total import and export volume; scientific research; assessment of educational institution growth, quantity of experts and headquarters of the top 500 companies in the world located in Hong Kong or in Asia Pacific within 5 to 10 years; the quality and quantity of medical facilities and personnel, tourism facilities, scientific research equipment, large-scale exhibitions held in Hong Kong every year; quantity of international conferences, cultural and sports activities; and other indicators.
Improving trade and services is the main starting point for the high-quality development of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao
Dr. Jonathan Choi said that in the past three years, despite facing the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and anti-globalization, with the Central government’s strong support , Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao have made full use of their advantages, together building a large platform for opening up, expanding economic and trade networks, and exploiting a larger area in the Greater Bay Area. The region’s total international trade volume exceeds 14 trillion RMB, ranking first among all the Bay Areas in the world. However, he also mentioned that although China is already the largest trading partner in goods trading and is the second largest in service trading, the structure of service trading still has shortcomings such as a large deficit, low added value and relatively high intensity labor. In 2020, Guangdong province’s total service trading is USD 851.9 billion, and among the 11 cities in the Greater Bay Area, the service sector level in a tier-one city such as Hong Kong, Macao, Shenzhen and Guangzhou is significantly different from the tier-three and tier-four cities.
In addition, he also suggested to leverage Hong Kong’s advantage as an international financial center to financially support development of the digital economy, while also actively building Hong Kong into a data center of the Asia-Pacific region and being a data bridge between the mainland, ASEAN and the world.
