Screenshots of the reporting news in Guangming Daily
On February 22nd, 2019，Sui Guangjun, party secretary of GDUFS, executive vice president of GIIS, and other officials received an exclusive interview from Guangming Daily to answer a series of questions on the development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The interview with Sui Guangjun is presented as follows:
Guangming Think Tank: Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (hereinafter referred to as Outline Development) calls for “enhancing the well-being of compatriots in Hong Kong and Macao”, and even has a special chapter on discussing “how to develop a quality living circle for living, working and travelling”. Netizens are generally concerned about two issues: What is the significance of creating a quality living circle for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area? And what benefits will the residents of the three places receive?
Sui Guangjun: Specifically, residents of the three places are able to gain the following five benefits:
First, it is conducive to promoting the free flow of education and talent resources, realizing the mutual recognition of course credits and students exchange, facilitating the study of children of compatriots from Hong Kong and Macao on the mainland, exploring the management mechanism for skilled migration, and promoting the mutual recognition of vocational qualifications, etc. Second, it will help promote cultural exchanges in the Greater Bay Area. Residents of the three places can visit cultural heritage exhibitions such as the Kaiping Diaolou and Villages and the historic downtown area of Macao, or participate in drama performances. Young people can also be exposed to excellent Chinese culture through the “Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Youth Cultural Tour”. Third, it will help foster the sharing of tourism resources in the Greater Bay Area. Residents of the three places can more easily and comfortably enjoy various tourism products and boutique routes including culture and history, leisure and vacation as well as cruise and yacht travel. Fourth, it will help expand the scope for employment and entrepreneurship. Hong Kong and Macao residents, especially students graduating from mainland schools, will be able to adapt more smoothly to living and working on the mainland. Last, it will help promote social security cooperation. For people from Hong Kong and Macao who are working and living in Guangdong, it is expected to realize the dovetailing of cross-boundary public services and social security such as education, medical care, elderly care, housing and transportation.
Guangming Think Tank: some netizens wondered what the weaknesses are that prevent the Greater Bay Area from becoming a quality living circle for living, working and traveling, and where we should focus our efforts in the future to enhance the overall cultural connotation of the Greater Bay Area.
Sui Guangjun: To enhance the connotation of high-quality development of the Greater Bay Area, two focal points should be emphasized.
First, efforts should be made to strengthen the hardware infrastructure network that connects the interior with the exterior, and to build a smoothly connected multi-dimensional transportation system in the air, on the road and under the ground. Specifically, it is necessary to accelerate the organic connection of transportation infrastructure such as airports, high-speed railways, expressways, urban rails and docks in the Greater Bay Area relying on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, Humen Second Bridge and other Bay Area corridors, and to create a “one-hour living circle” with the intercity rapid transit network as the core. With the efficiency boost of port clearance in the Bay Area and the quality improvement of passenger and freight services, therefore, a convenient urban living circle in the Greater Bay Area will be built.
Second, efforts are also needed to build an open and inclusive public service system and facilities in the Greater Bay Area, and ensure that Hong Kong and Macao residents who are working and living in the Greater Bay Area share equal treatment with mainland residents. By means of promoting the construction of smart city with the help of “Internet+” and “ingenuity spirit”, improving the city with “fine embroidery skills”, and strengthening the weaknesses with “harmless treatment”, the fine urban management ability of the Greater Bay Area will be strengthened, the quality of the city will be improved, and thus a beautiful Bay Area will be built.
Guangming Think Tank: As the theme song of the Greater Bay Area Common Homeland sings, “Different roles have their own future”, and “the world will be bigger with opening-up”. Netizens wondered how to better leverage the cultural advantages of the Greater Bay Area and demonstrate its cultural charm.
Sui Guangjun: The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is a blend of diverse cultures, featuring both local and foreign characteristics, presenting a distinct diversity of both traditional Lingnan culture and international metropolis culture, covering rich folk culture resources.
On the basis of such cultural characteristics, the major task is to improve the system of cultural and creative industries. The current problem facing the Greater Bay Area is an unbalanced development of its cultural industry. Only Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dongguan and Huizhou have cultural industries accounting for 5% of GDP or close. The proportion of cultural manufacturing industry in Pearl River Delta is too large, while there is a lack of innovation in cultural industry. Hong Kong has obviously strong supporting advantages in cultural and creative industries, but the staying power is insufficient. These problems pose a great challenge to the high-quality development of cultural and creative industries in the Greater Bay Area. To solve the above problems, we should take “cultural community” as the starting point, and combine the rich cultural resources, thorough industrial chain and broad market of the mainland with the open economic system, high-end creative talent resources and international financial advantages of Hong Kong and Macao, so as to build a world-class cultural industry center. In addition, modern scientific and technological means such as “Internet+”, 3D digital animation technology and virtual reality technology can be used to integrate traditional with modern culture, online with offline resources in order to realize the integration of culture and technology, cultural industry and intelligent manufacturing so as to make cultural heritage resources “alive”.
