John Lee: With the Northern Metropolis as the engine, Hong Kong joins hands with Bay Area cities to build a world-class city cluster

John Lee Ka-chiu, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said in his address at the 2026 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Global Investment Promotion Conference that the Greater Bay Area, as a strategic pivot of the country's new development pattern, a demonstration zone for high-quality development, and a leading area for Chinese-style modernization, contributes about one-ninth of the country's total economic output with less than 0.6% of the country's land area, and has enormous development potential. This year is the opening year of the country's 15th Five-Year Plan. Hong Kong released "Hong Kong's First Five-Year Plan" in September, proactively aligning with national strategies, leveraging the combined opportunities of "one country, two systems" with both national and international advantages, and joining hands with Bay Area cities to build a world-class bay area and world-class city cluster. He said that the new Policy Address continues to deepen the coordinated development of the Greater Bay Area, working on three fronts: "hard connectivity" of infrastructure, "soft connectivity" of rules and mechanisms, and "heart connectivity" of people, to smooth the flow of people, goods, capital, and data. Hong Kong is accelerating the development of major cooperation platforms such as Qianhai, Nansha, and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Loop, promoting the coordinated linkage of innovation chains and industrial chains; the Northern Metropolis, as the core engine for Hong Kong's participation in Bay Area development, covers about one-third of Hong Kong's area and focuses on the layout of a university town, innovation and technology, and industry, creating a new district that is livable, workable, and visitable, empowering the high-quality development of the Bay Area. John Lee Ka-chiu pointed out that Hong Kong, with its status as an international financial, shipping, and trade center, together with its legal system aligned with international standards, free flow of capital, low tax regime, and professional services system, continues to serve as a "super connector" and "super value-adder," becoming a two-way springboard for mainland enterprises going global and overseas enterprises establishing a presence in the Bay Area. The task force established by the SAR for mainland enterprises going global has so far assisted more than 360 mainland enterprises in setting up or expanding operations in Hong Kong. Hong Kong will provide a package of investment promotion incentives, actively attract key enterprises to establish a presence, amplify the function of the two-way platform, and promote the "bringing in" of foreign investment and the "going global" of mainland enterprises.