Greater Bay Area: Newest blueprint facilitates free flow of talents

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02:42

China recently unveiled a development blueprint for the Guangdong-- Hong Kong-- Macao Greater Bay Area. The mega-region is widely expected to play an important role in China's opening up, under its "One Country, Two Systems" principle. One challenge is how to enable better flow of talents. CGTN's He Weiwei reports.

"When I first came to the mainland, I couldn't get used to driving here, because people drive on the left side (In Hong Kong it's the right side). But now I can drive quite well."

Rocky Yu, a Hong Kong citizen, came to work in Shenzhen City, in Guangdong Province 16 years ago.

"The biggest attraction of the mainland is its 1.4 billion people. China has a huge middle class population; it has strong consumption power."

Yu runs a business service center in Shenzhen, providing consulting services. He's helped more than 200 Hong Kong companies in the mainland. So, what are the common problems facing these firms?

ROCKY YU, FOUNDER QIANHAI GANGJUNDA SHENZHEN BUSINESS SERVICES CO, LTD. "The taxation system and business registration procedures, as well as other requirements here are more complicated than Hong Kong."

But he says things are improving. Having lived in Shenzhen since 2003, Yu has seen positive changes.

ROCKY YU, FOUNDER QIANHAI GANGJUNDA SHENZHEN BUSINESS SERVICES CO, LTD. "There are quite a number of preferential policies now for us working in the mainland. For example, we no longer need a Temporary Residence Permit or a work permit; we can stay in the mainland without a time limit."

A blueprint of the Greater Bay Area was unveiled in February. It outlines short-term plans through 2022 and long-term policies for 2035. It encourages Hong Kong and Macao residents to study in the mainland schools or work in state-owned enterprises or even government agencies.

HE WEIWEI SHENZHEN "Many people work and even move to the mainland from Hong Kong or Macao. But when talking about the flow of the workforce within the Bay Area, what about the other direction?"

There are concerns the workforce flow from the mainland will become a problem, but some experts are not worried.

LIU CHUNSHENG CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF FINANCE & ECONOMICS "I think the imbalance here like the Human Resources difference between Macao and Hong Kong and the mainland is the policy difference. If they make favorable policies for the mainland workers to work more easily in Hong Kong and Macao, I think this can be solved in the long term."

But whether Hong Kong and Macao will be capable of handling huge number of workers will be key.

HWW, CGTN, SHENZHEN.