Hong Kong's Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau: Greater Bay Area Continues to Deepen Cooperation, Efficiently Connecting People, Goods, Funds, and Information Flows

On April 20th, the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs of Hong Kong, Erick Tsang Kwok-wai, stated in his opening remarks at a meeting of the Legislative Council's Panel on Constitutional Affairs on the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area that, in the past few years, with the strong support from the central government and the joint efforts of the three regions, a number of policies and measures promoting the flow of people, goods, capital, and information in the Bay Area have been successively introduced. The Hong Kong SAR government is continuously deepening cooperation with Guangdong and Macao in various fields, covering areas such as cooperation in innovation and technology and industrial development, infrastructure connectivity, regulatory "soft" connectivity, integrated market development, and the construction of a high-quality living circle, to comprehensively promote the high-quality development of the Greater Bay Area. For example, the Hetao Hong Kong Park (Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Cooperation Zone Hong Kong Park) officially opened in December 2025, and has already attracted over 70 enterprises and institutions from overseas, mainland China, and Hong Kong to set up operations. As a major cooperation platform in the Greater Bay Area, Hetao plays a strategic role in driving new productive forces in the Bay Area and connecting global innovation and technology resources. The Hong Kong SAR government will actively promote the development of Hetao Hong Kong Park, fully leverage Hong Kong's role as a bridge connecting the mainland and the world, and become an important platform for investment attraction, talent attraction, and promote the coordinated development and close connection of the two parks in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. In terms of facilitating cross-border vehicle passage, the Hong Kong SAR government has been actively promoting various Global Top E-Commerce measures with Guangdong and Macao to continuously improve supporting facilities, optimize arrangements, enhance efficiency, expand capacity, and promote the facilitation of personnel and vehicle traffic and the development of transportation and logistics. With the successful implementation and promotion of the "Hong Kong cars traveling north" initiative, the usage of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge has continued to increase, with over 140,000 Hong Kong private cars participating in the program. Building on this initiative, the reciprocal arrangement of "Guangdong cars traveling south" has also been implemented since the end of last year, opening up a new mode of visiting Hong Kong for mainland residents. These two measures complement each other, promote two-way travel between Guangdong and Hong Kong residents, and achieve a higher level of flow of people and goods. In promoting the connectivity of funds, the "Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect" is an important measure to promote the connectivity between the mainland and Hong Kong-Macao financial markets. Since its implementation, the measure has been operating smoothly, and various optimization arrangements have been steadily advancing. Since the launch of the "Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect 2.0," the number of investors and the amount of cross-boundary remittances have recorded significant growth, exceeding 170,000 investors and over 130 billion RMB to date, providing a formal and convenient cross-border investment channel for investors in the Greater Bay Area, promoting the connectivity of financial markets in the Greater Bay Area, and creating new opportunities for banks, securities, and wealth management industries in the three regions. Furthermore, the Hong Kong SAR government continues to implement and optimize various measures, continuously promoting the development of a high-quality living circle in the Bay Area. Since the launch of the Elderly Medical Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Scheme in 2024, the coverage has been continuously expanded, and 12 new medical institutions have been added to provide coverage in all nine mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area. The scope of the Greater Bay Area Cross-border Ambulance Trial Plan has also expanded from Shenzhen and Macao to designated hospitals in Zhuhai and Nansha, and starting from March this year, the trial plan has been further expanded to include bi-directional transfer arrangements. The Guangdong Care Home Service Scheme (Guangdong Care Home Scheme) provides assistance to frail elderly people in Hong Kong who wish to retire in mainland China by staying in participating care homes in Guangdong. In February this year, the number of care homes participating in the Guangdong Care Home Scheme has increased to 26, covering all nine mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area. These are just a few examples of the coordinated development of the Greater Bay Area, and in reality, the integration and development among cities in the Greater Bay Area is boundless. With deepening and strengthening cooperation between Hong Kong, Guangdong, and Macao, more innovative breakthroughs and mutually beneficial projects will continue to increase and expand, promoting high-level connectivity among the three regions and efficient flow of people, goods, funds, and information, as well as the process of market integration in the three regions will usher in a broader, deeper, and faster future. In March this year, the Fourth Session of the Fourteenth National People's Congress deliberated and passed the national "Outline of the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan," explicitly stating the need to consolidate and enhance the role of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as Beijing Dynamic Power, deepen the construction of the Greater Bay Area, strengthen the rule alignment and mechanism connection in aspects such as science and technology innovation, economic development, and public services, strengthen the rule of law guarantees, fully leverage the leading role of major cooperation platforms and pilot areas, accelerate the construction of an internationally first-class bay area, and support the Greater Bay Area in building a world-class city cluster. The Hong Kong SAR government will anchor the new positioning of "one core, two types of governance" proposed by President Xi Jinping, continue to uphold the spirit of seeking truth from facts and mutual benefit, closely cooperate and communicate with relevant ministries and commissions of the central government, the Guangdong provincial government, and the Macao SAR government, and work together to build the Greater Bay Area as a strategic fulcrum of the new development pattern of the country, a demonstration area of high-quality development, and a leading area of Chinese-style modernization. The Hong Kong SAR government will actively align with the key development directions and platform construction of the national "Outline of the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan," continuously deepen the rule alignment and mechanism connection with cities in the Greater Bay Area, promote the convenient cross-border flow of innovative elements, better integrate and serve the overall development of the country, strive for more policy breakthroughs that benefit Hong Kong residents, promote the integrated development of the Bay Area, drive Hong Kong to achieve better development, and also support the country's high-quality development and high-level opening up.