The Greater Bay Area and the role of Hong Kong and Macau SARs in the Belt and Road Initiative

Mainland China, the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions (SARs) of China are involved in the global projects 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, since decades is the world’s freest economy, see the 2019 index of economic freedom, and Macau is also a free economy. Hong Kong has a key role—already fully implemented by President Xi Jinping and Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam—for the development of the Greater Bay Area which became promoted with the symbolic and quite extraordinary new giant bridge linking Hong Kong with Zhuhai and Macau (Macau, Ponte HK-Zhuhai-Macau, Serie IV, Nr 63, 2018). Already Hong Kong and Shenzhen have merged into one block virtually separated only by the law until 2047. Similar interconnections link Macau and Zhuhai. The Hong Kong Basic Law does not allow the fusion of the two cities, but now the name Greater Bay Area links them and had changed something. It shows the beginning of a future fusion out of the legal system. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is one of the most important factors of economic and financial development of China’s globalization. Certainly, the Greater Bay Area will contribute to the development of the Belt and Road Initiative in the future. The major function of the Greater Bay Area is to expand the role of Hong Kong, Macau and the Province of Guangdong to develop the Belt and Road Initiative; this was clearly mentioned by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. Macau is a historical tourist center and was before 2014 the first casino city of the world. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).