Greater Bay Area (GBA) Importance of Hong Kong and Guangzhou

The purpose of this research is to explain the importance of the Greater Bay Area and in particular the key role of the two most important cities Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Politically, culturally, administratively and financially they are both essential and international arbitration cannot be forgotten in particular in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Mainland China, the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions (SARS) of China are involved in the global project called the Belt and Road Initiative and the Greater Bay Area (GBA). Finance, economy and infrastructure are at the forefront of Hong Kong’s sectors. Its financial system is well regulated in many areas. The urban population of the GBA is growing, and with the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, many cities in the Guangzhou-Hong Kong-Macau triangle will be linked. Hong Kong, for decades, has been the world’s freest economy, as seen in its Index of Economic Freedom. Hong Kong has a key role—already fully implemented by President Xi Jinping and past Hong Kong Chief Executives Tung Chee Hwa between 1997 and 2005, and Carrie Lam—in the development of the Greater Bay Area which became promoted with the symbolic and quite extraordinary new mega bridge linking Hong Kong with Zhuhai and Macau. In particular, the author Jean Berlie has attended the return to the mainland of Hong Kong in 1992 and Macau in December 1999 following three years in Dili, East Timor (with Manuel Benard). In Guangzhou at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Jinan University, the Center of Asian Studies (HKU), in Hong Kong, at the International Institute of Macau and the Macao Foundation, thanks to its president Wu Zhiliang, we have followed the fantastic evolution of many cities of the Pearl River Delta and the construction of one of the longest bridge of the world to understand the evolution of the GBA. The new Chief Executive John Lee Kachiu wants intensively to develop HKSAR and was elected on 8 May 2022. He follows the slogan “Starting a new chapter for Hong Kong together”. In the GBA, the dominant Chinese identity of Guangdong Province, Hong Kong, and Macau is Cantonese. The results of this research show the dynamic economic development of the GBA, one of the most remarkable economic regions in China. However, to secure the full development of the GBA it is necessary to harmonize Guangdong Province with Hong Kong, Macau SARS and Guangzhou because they have three different legal systems. Method, Findings and Innovation: This article on the GBA tries to show that GBA aims to build a more globally integrated, innovative economy and finance.