深圳最近的政治和經濟發展表明，這座南方城市地理位置優越，並已準備好成為強大的經濟火車頭，在未來5年內推動粵港澳大灣區（GBA）的整體發展，將對香港和澳門特別行政區的重新定位和戰略規劃產生直接影響。
深圳：中國特色社會主義先行示範區
深圳市第七次黨代表大會4月7日舉行，廣東省委副書記、深圳巿委書記王偉中就深圳未來5年的經濟發展作報告。在習近平主席於2020年10月訪問深圳之後，2021年深圳將成為2021至2025年大灣區全面發展的「先行示範區」。王偉中表示，深圳要做好「中國特色社會主義先行示範區」，創建「社會主義現代化強國」的城市範例，黨的幹部要牢記黨中央創辦經濟特區、支持深圳建設先行示範區的戰略意圖，充分發揮「雙區驅動、雙區疊加」的效應。
王偉中又強調，市委要清政廉潔，因為他們的權力是「黨和人民」賦予，只能用於「為黨分憂、為國盡責、為民奉獻」。他又強調，市委會將人民放在心中最高位置，下更大力氣解決市民關心的教育、醫療、住房等問題。
報告又強調，深圳通過技術創新和文化軟實力躋身國際城市的重要性。 6G通訊的發展被視為深圳未來的工業重點，研發投入佔深圳GDP的5％。在抗撃新冠肺炎的同時，深圳必須加快形成以國內大循環為主體、國內國際雙循環相互促進的新發展格局。
從地緣政治的角度看，深圳必須加快打造「高質量發展高地」，促進高質量創新，深化大灣區建設，提升「深港澳市場一體化」水準，創造深港「雙贏城市經濟」，並創建一個合作平台以促進包括粵深關係等不同地區的融合。從戰略上來說，深圳必須加快助力扶貧的進程，藉此加強城鄉互動。如此，深圳可朝着「瞄準高質量發展高地、法治城市示範、城市文明典範、民生幸福標杆、可持續發展先鋒的戰略定位持續奮鬥，建成現代化國際化創新型城市，基本實現社會主義現代化」的目標奮鬥。
深圳顯然必會成為華南地區的領先城市，藉此引導科技、人才、生態和工業發展的方向。然而，深圳必須通過改善社會和公共行政管理的方式，來加強自身管理。 因此，市民必須建立對法律制度的信心，深圳必須成為中國大陸「法治」的模範城市。
事實上，深圳社會經濟發展迅速。截至4月24日，在1300萬居民中，有390萬人在深圳接種了疫苗，速度遠比香港快。 4月26日，深圳市外匯管理局簡化了在深圳工作和居住的外國人的外幣匯款和薪金支付的程序，旨在吸引更多的外國人才來深圳工作。此外，深圳市教育局計劃在2025年將全市9年免費教育改為12年。深圳市教育部門還允許在香港攻讀副學士學位的學生在深圳所有大學繼續深造，從而開放更多香港年輕人通往內地學習的大門。此外，深圳大學希望在香港設立校園，以促進本科生和研究生的雙邊交流，而香港大學和香港中文大學已經在深圳建立了校園。
華南地區最強大的經濟火車頭
另外，連接深圳和中山的「深中通道」正在建設中，計劃於2024年竣工。深圳國際機場到中山之間的行車時間，將從兩個小時縮短到只需20分鐘。
深圳的新經濟目標，是到2025年實現本地生產總值（GDP）4萬億元（人民幣，下同），而2020年深圳的GDP是2.77萬億元，這是一個雄心勃勃的目標，如果這個目標實現了，深圳肯定成為華南地區最強大的經濟火車頭，而自4月10日起，深圳市羅湖區政府推出了數字人民幣應用程式，以促進居民的數字支付和使用。
為了加速科技創新，大灣區大學奠基儀式4月22日在東莞舉行，目標在2023年正式招生，重點聚焦物質科學、先進工程、生命科學、新一代資科科技、理學、金融6個方向。
面對深圳在社會、經濟和科技的高速發展，對香港和澳門有直接而明顯的影響。首先，港澳兩地的大學必須加強與深圳各大學的交流和互訪，以拓闊港澳兩地學生的視野。
其次，香港和澳門的高等院校必須加強對年輕人科技與創新的培訓，這需要政府在科技創新的發展方面投入更多的資金；必須開辦和擴充與科技創新、創意與文化有關的持續教育課程和在職培訓課程，並加深了解中國內地各個方面，包括廣東和深圳的發展。
第三，一旦新冠疫情有望減褪，香港和澳門的工商業界必須藉政府推介或商會協助，加強與深圳同業的了解、人際網絡和聯繫，以為新的經濟起飛作準備。
總而言之，在控制新冠病毒擴散的當前階段，深圳、廣東和大灣區現正在積極為華南地區新的經濟騰飛、社會經濟融合和科技進步的新時期作準備，同時期望逐步放寬邊境管制和加強人員流動，在這個情況下，香港和澳門都不能落後於形勢；都必須為大灣區的進一步發展進行規劃和充分準備。相互協調將確保雙贏，而城市之間的競爭，將促進未來10年大灣區的經濟進步。
OPINION-The Political Economy of Shenzhen’s Development: Immediate Implications for Hong Kong and Macau
Recent political and economic developments in Shenzhen have shown that the southern Chinese city is well positioned and prepared to be a powerful economic locomotive driving the entire economic growth of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) in the coming five years, having immediate implications for the repositioning and strategic planning of the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions.
On April 7, the Seventh Party Congress in Shenzhen was held, with the city’s party-secretary and Guangdong’s provincial deputy party-secretary Wang Weizhong delivering a report on Shenzhen’s economic development in the coming five years. First, after President Xi Jinping’s visit to Shenzhen in October 2020, the year 2021 is witnessing Shenzhen’s beginning role as a “vanguard demonstration point” for “comprehensive development” in the GBA from 2021 to 2025. As such, the party and its leading cadres in Shenzhen are playing a pivotal role as the “vanguard” of “socialist modernization.” Ideologically, the party cadres need to uphold the necessary consciousness and self-confidence to achieve socialist modernization. They are required to achieve breakthroughs by improving the quality of the entire city, developing the people’s livelihood, adopting reforms in “ecological civilization” and consolidating anti-poverty work.
After setting the political tone and direction of Shenzhen’s development, the report emphases the importance of Shenzhen to become an international city through technological innovation and cultural soft power. The development of 6G is regarded as Shenzhen’s future industrial focus, occupying 5 percent of Shenzhen’s GDP in research and development. The brand name of Shenzhen will have to be publicized and expanded in all its products by making use of the country’s “internal big circulation” and “international double circulation.” In other words, in the process of controlling the spread of Covid-19, Shenzhen needs to fully utilize the huge internal market of China while fostering its external trade and multilateral relations with other countries and international cities.
Geopolitically, Shenzhen must elevate its “high quality developmental high ground,” promote high quality innovation, deepen the constructions of the GBA, elevate the standard of “market integration between Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macau,” generate a Shenzhen-Hong Kong “double cities’ economy,” and create a cooperative platform to foster the integration of different regions, including the relations between Guangdong and Shenzhen. Strategically, Shenzhen must “move eastward, coordinate with the western regions, forging linkages with the southern parts, expanding to the north, and achieving excellence in the central areas.” The process of curbing poverty will have to be accelerated to enhance the rural-urban interactions. In this way, the city of Shenzhen will become an innovative ecological chain integrating development, fostering technological and monetary integration, and accelerating industrial developments. It will position itself as a place for accumulating talents to become a first-class world technological innovation hub.
Clearly, Shenzhen must become a leader in Southern China to steer the direction of technological, talent, ecological, and industrial development. But the city has to strengthen its own governance by improving how the society and public administration are managed. As such, law must be enacted to foster technological advancement; law must be implemented seriously, and citizens must abide by the law to remake Shenzhen as a governance charactered by “the rule of law.” Citizens will have to build up their confidence in the legal system and Shenzhen will have to become a model city of “the rule of law” in mainland China.
Shenzhen will, according to the report, have to be “open and tolerant” and strive for excellence in its public services, cultural products and other new cultural and media products. The idea of “the people as the center” must be cultivated in the psyche of the ruling elites so that students, workers, patients and the elderly and the poor will be taken care of effectively. Public services will have to be improved and perfected. A comprehensive social protection system will have to be created together with a green economy and society. Under these circumstances, the people in Shenzhen will enjoy a wealthy city and society as co-producers and co-workers.
The tone of the entire report is quite socialist and egalitarian. Rumors were rife that a batch of eighteen cadres lost their positions recently due to their failure to curb the rising property prices in Shenzhen. If the rumors were accurate, the perfection of governance is high on the agenda of Shenzhen’s political economy of development.
The report has strong political overtone, emphasizing the political correctness of the Shenzhen leading cadres and party officials, who are expected to uphold the vision, mission and thoughts of President Xi Jinping. The resolution of the Party Congress calls for all party organizations, all party members, and the masses in the entire city to “unite closely around Comrade Xi Jinping as core party leader.” They all must be bold, determined, fast, and persistent to become the “commanding ship” of the “renaissance of the great Chinese nation.”
In fact, Shenzhen’s recent socio-economic development has been rapid. Out of 13 million residents, 3.9 million people in Shenzhen have been vaccinated as of April 24 – a vaccination rate much faster than Hong Kong. On April 26, the Shenzhen Exchange Bureau simplified the remittance and payment of salaries in foreign exchange currencies to foreigners working and residing in Shenzhen – a process that aims at attracting more foreign talents to work in Shenzhen. Moreover, the Shenzhen education authorities plan to change the city’s nine-year free education to twelve years in 2025. The Shenzhen education department also allows the students studying for associate degrees in Hong Kong to pursue further studies at all the universities in Shenzhen, thereby opening the door to more Hong Kong youths to study in the mainland. Furthermore, the Shenzhen University wants to construct its campus in Hong Kong to facilitate a bilateral exchange of undergraduate and graduate students, while the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong have already established their campuses in Shenzhen.
A bridge, namely “Shenzhong passage,” linking Shenzhen with Zhongshan is under construction and scheduled to be completed in the year 2024, shortening the travel time between the Shenzhen Baoan international airport to Zhongshan from two hours to only 20 minutes.
Economically, Shenzhen’s new target is to achieve GDP 4 trillion yuan in the year 2025, an increase of fivefold from 2021. This is a very ambitious target, which if achieved will surely become the most powerful economic locomotive in Southern China. Since April 10, the Lowu government in Shenzhen has introduced digital Renminbi app to facilitate the digital payment and usage of residents.
From April 23 to 25, Vic-Premier and the Director of the GBA Leading Small Group Han Zheng visited Guangzhou and Shantou and encouraged the youth people of Hong Kong to play a more active role in the economic and social integration of the GBA. At the same time, the Guangdong province is encouraged to promote the further integration of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau in the regional development, putting the priority on technological innovation. The first quarter of 2021 has witnessed Guangdong’s GDP increase by 18.6 percent, including a 32 percent jump in the investment from foreign, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan entrepreneurs (Ta Kung Pao, April 22, 2021). On April 20, Guangdong’s provincial governor Ma Xingrui said that Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau must accelerate the process of accumulating new resources to “co-enjoy” the rapid development, while Guangdong will accelerate the process of giving preferential treatment to the Taiwan people in their study, residence and health care services.
As Covid-19 is now increasingly under control in the GBA, more Hong Kong people are encouraged to buy their homes in the GBA, a matter publicized in the patriotic media in Hong Kong. About 20,000 apartment units in the GBA are going to anticipate the entry of Hong Kong owners, who are aged between 35 and 45, in the year 2021. Young Hongkongers are also encouraged to develop their careers in Shenzhen, including Qianhai where some young Hong Kong entrepreneurs are starting up their creative business.
To accelerate the process of technological innovation, the University of the Greater Bay Area started its construction in Dongguan on April 22. It will formally admit students in the year 2023, focusing on the disciplines of geological science, advanced engineering and biological science.
In the face of Shenzhen’s rapid development socially, economically and technologically, the implications for Hong Kong and Shenzhen are immediate and obvious. First and foremost, universities in both Hong Kong and Macau must enhance their exchanges and visits with their counterparts in Shenzhen, broadening the horizon of students in the two special administrative regions.
Second, Hong Kong and Macau’s tertiary institutions must enhance the training of technology and innovation among their young people, necessitating more governmental investment in the development of technological innovation. Continuing education programs and on-the-job training courses related to technology and innovation, creativity and culture, and a deeper understanding in all aspects of China, including Guangdong and Shenzhen, must be opened and expanded.
Third, the business sectors in both Hong Kong and Macau must enhance their awareness, networks and linkages with their counterparts in Shenzhen either through governmental introduction or their business associations to prepare for a new economic “take-off” once Covid-19 will hopefully fade away later.
Fourth, while Macau’s economic diversification must be accelerated and deepened by not just talking about into which industries that it should diversify, concrete action and leadership must be shown by a much stronger partnership between the Macau government and the private sector. Macau cannot and will not afford to lag behind in the political economy of competition and coordination in the GBA.
Fifth, similarly, the Hong Kong government must work with the private sector more closely and assertively on how to penetrate the GBA strategically, forging linkages with different occupational sectors in Shenzhen and Guangdong.
In conclusion, during the current phase of controlling the spread of Covid-19, Shenzhen, Guangdong and the Greater Bay Area are now preparing intensively and assertively for a new economic take-off and a new era of socio-economic integration and technological advancement in South China. Under these circumstances, and in anticipation for a gradual relaxation of border control and an incremental process of enhanced human interactions, both Hong Kong and Macau cannot lag behind the vibrant development in the political economy of mutual coordination and competition. Both Hong Kong and Macau must plan and prepare sufficiently for the further development of the Greater Bay Area. Mutual coordination will ensure a win-win situation while mutual competition will equally enhance mutual economic progress in the coming decade.
原刊於澳門新聞通訊社（MNA）網站，本社獲作者授權轉載。
