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Is Guangdong Free Trade Zone another Hong Kong?
广东是否会成为自由贸易区
The ambitious Guangdong Free Trade Zone also got the regulatory greenlight. Some say it will further enhance cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao, but others are more cynical, believing it will steal the limelight from the former British colony as the free trade center.
This is the current Asian financial center, a free trade environment. And this is a free trade environment of the future. With the announcement of the Guangdong free-trade zone, Hong Kong has been put back in the spotlight again.
"We’re not looking at Chinese cities as completion, rather we see Chinese cities as customers of HK. Hong Kong’s transformed itself from a small manufacturing center, to a service center and now an international financial center, partly because China’s opening up and reform," said Chan Ka-Keung, Secretary of Financial Service & The Treasury of HK.
The four economic pillars of Hong Kong are: trading and logistics; financial services; professional services and other producer services; and tourism.
And these are also what the new Guangdong free trade zone are targeting. Some say more cooperation could happen between both Hong Kong and Macao in the future.
“HK and Macao are too small geographically, and have limited resources. With the establishment of Guangdong Free Trade Zone, both sides will benefit, as HK has free trade experience and the mainland has resources, so they can go to the world together," said Archie Leung, member of Academic Committee of Pangoal Institute.
"But others say the new free trade zone may bring more challenges to Hong Kong, as Guangdong's is virtually a copy of Hong Kong's. Some believe it will just be another Hong Kong," reporter Zhu Dan said.
So can Hong Kong be copied?
“It’s not just low tariff, it’s not just the interest of liberalisation, it’s whether you have the system, I mean do you have protection for, do you have respect for, do you have efficient government agencies," said Dr. Tao Zhigang, associate dean of Faculty of Business & Economy, University of HK.
Little is still known over how the newly-approved FTZs will further enhance Shanghai's Free Trade Zone experiments. But the success of mainland China's Free Trade Zones should not come at the expense of Hong Kong. After all, competition is never a bad thing.
