The development strategies and roles of local governments in China’s Greater Bay Area : a comparative study of Hong Kong, Macao and Shenzhen

Abstract

In recent decades, China’s rapid economic growth has attracted international attention on its economic development driven by its gradual, experimental, and federal fiscal regional development. Previous studies of China’s economic development under socialism with Chinese characteristics generally expected that the central government would initiate various regional economic development policies in a top-down manner; however, in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) Outline Development Plan which is officially established in 2017, local governments are initiating and implementing policies to drive cross boundary cooperation from a more bottom-up approach. This research selects three core cities in the plan􀀁Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR and Shenzhen–and adopts a comparative perspective to investigate the roles of governments and their interactions of policy dynamics and economic development, paying particular attention to differences in social, political and economic systems under the “One Country, Two Systems” policy for the two SARs. The study first offers a qualitative comparison of the economic policies of the three cities and a quantitative comparison of their macroeconomic performance. Using the empirical information as a basis, the study analyzes the roles of the three governments and their development strategies within the GBA development plan. The findings show that (1) the governance of regional economic development in China has slowly shifted from a top-down command-and-control approach to a more bottom-up approach; (2) urban agglomeration has contributed to the development of China’s city clusters; (3) the local governments of the three selected cities have own irreplaceable roles and development strategies to propel “coopetition”. The research further discovers the present gaps and future challenges of the three local governments’ development strategies while also providing theoretical and policy implications for the future development of the GBA and other Chinese and Asian metropolitan regions.