Teamwork needed in Qianhai quest

The official opening of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone has drawn attention to the progress of Guangdong's special economic zones in Qianhai, Hengqin and Nansha.迷你倉 Of the three, Hengqin in Zhuhai has been most active. Its representatives were in Hong Kong recently to enlist partners for development of two of its sizable sites. But Shenzhen's Qianhai, with a stated focus in the financial area, is causing concern. After a gestation period exceeding two years, the special economic zone put up plots for sale, but received lukewarm response from Hong Kong companies, and the sites were eventually sold to mainland parties. Analysts believe the underwhelming reception by Hong Kong enterprises may be explained by the restrictive terms of participation. Long payback time was also a concern for Hong Kong investors, as Qianhai targets financial services, not real estate development. But new competition from the Shanghai Free Trade Zone appears to have spurred Qianhai into action with what is apparently some policy adjustments. It has star自存倉ed organizing regular visits to the zone for interested parties from Hong Kong, and some sites will be earmarked for SAR-led development. The purpose is to create a Hong Kong area within the special economic zone to get trade organizations and other representative bodies in the SAR to take part. There were reports Guangdong is asking Beijing to turn its special economic areas into free trade zones like Shanghai. But the Shanghai experiment is a top policy matter that must be thoroughly tested, so Guangdong will not likely see its request granted anytime soon. So instead of dragging its feet to hope for a policy change - which would be foolish - Guangdong should step up collaboration with Hong Kong to secure a leading position. Qianhai's development has been hampered by a high entrance threshold, which is seen by some as aloofness. Now it could choose to turn the competitive pressure from Shanghai into motivation to speed up its pace of development by working closer with the SAR. Siu Sai-wo is publisher of Sing Tao Daily 迷你倉