By Wilson Shum Ho-kit
In early August, the HKSAR deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) conducted an in-depth inspection tour of Anhui Province, visiting various cities including Hefei, Wuhu, and Xuancheng. Located in the heartland of the Yangtze River Delta, Anhui has achieved remarkable leaps in recent years through hard-tech innovation, leaving a profound impression on the delegation. As Hong Kong fully advances the development of the Northern Metropolis, this strategic project serves not only as a crucial pivot for integrating into overall national development, but also as a key step toward addressing deep-seated economic and social contradictions and reshaping the city's spatial layout. Anhui's valuable experience in advancing "new quality productive forces", rural revitalization, and ecological-cultural preservation offers vital reference for building the Northern Metropolis into a benchmark for "urban-rural integration" and high-quality development.
Fortifying the Innovation Engine of the Northern Metropolis through the "Government-Industry-Academia-Research-Application" Chain
Anhui's rise in technological innovation, often dubbed the "Hefei Phenomenon," relies on precise industrial planning and a deeply integrated industry-university-research ecosystem. In Hefei, frontier quantum technology, artificial intelligence, and new energy vehicles have formed robust clusters; in Wuhu, the low-altitude economy and advanced manufacturing have established a comprehensive industrial ecosystem.
One of the core positions of the Northern Metropolis is the "Innovation and Technology Zone," particularly San Tin Technopole, which urgently requires a sustainable industrial ecosystem. While Hong Kong boasts world-class universities and basic research capability, it faces bottlenecks in commercializing research outcomes and securing industrial chain support. Drawing on Anhui's experience, the Northern Metropolis should leverage its institutional advantages under "One Country, Two Systems" to actively align with the industrial resources of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) and the Yangtze River Delta. For example, we can introduce Anhui's pilot experiences in the low-altitude economy and autonomous driving to open-up application scenarios in the Northern Metropolis, such as low-altitude logistics, high-altitude maintenance, and medical rescue, thereby driving industrial deployment through policy innovation. We can also draw upon Anhui's flexible industrial guidance funds and technology incubation mechanisms to connect Hong Kong higher education institutions with mainland market leaders, building a full-chain technology commercialization platform at San Tin Technopole to rapidly transform research findings into market solutions.
Reshaping the Northern Metropolis Rural Economic Network through "Arts and Innovation Common Prosperity"
The Northern Metropolis is by no means merely a landscape of high-rises and tech parks, its vast rural lands represent an irreplaceable asset for Hong Kong. The "Arts & Innovation Common Prosperity" rural revitalization model observed by the delegation at Jiuzi Bay in Wuhu demonstrated the immense possibilities of activating rural land resources. The project seamlessly integrates rural residential land, idle farmland, modern cultural tourism, non-material cultural heritage creativity, and ecological agriculture, achieving shared benefits among village collectives, farmers, and enterprises.
By contrast, rural development in Hong Kong's Northern Metropolis has long been constrained by complex land ownership rights and a singular compensation-and-resettlement model, frequently placing development and conservation at odds. Anhui's experience demonstrates that rural development in the Northern Metropolis could pursue a new path of "urban-rural integration and shared prosperity". When implementing the "Northern Metropolis Urban-Rural Integration Fund", the HKSAR Government can adapt the "Arts & Innovation Common Prosperity" model to encourage indigenous villagers to participate in joint development through land or property usage rights, sharing the long-term value-added dividends of industrial transformation. Furthermore, we can combine New Territories traditional walled village culture with leisure agriculture and digital technology to attract young people to return home and start businesses, introducing precision agriculture and green wellness industries to transform the Northern Metropolis countryside into a modern urban backyard for leisure and wellness.
Sculpting a Cultural High Ground on a "Green and Sustainable" Foundation
As the "Home of Xuan Paper", Xuancheng showcased how to translate rich historical and cultural heritage and green ecological advantages into new momentum for high-quality development. Xuancheng adheres to the principle that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", integrating the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage into eco-tourism, realizing a win-win outcome for environmental protection, cultural preservation, and economic returns.
The Northern Metropolis encompasses Deep Bay wetlands, the Mai Po Nature Reserve, mangrove forests, and rich walled-village Hakka culture, possessing immense ecological and cultural value. Construction in the Northern Metropolis must adhere to the principle of " balancing development and conservation". Applying Xuancheng's cultural preservation experience to the Northern Metropolis, we can use Hong Kong's international platform to repackage New Territories walled village traditions, traditional festivals, and intangible cultural heritage crafts into internationally attractive cultural tourism offerings, effectively telling the stories of China and Hong Kong. On environmental conservation, we could establish a cross-boundary wetland and ecological corridor protection mechanisms, treating natural reserves as the "green canvas" of urban development rather than mere development obstacles.
Dual-Engine Synergies between the Yangtze River Delta and the Greater Bay Area
Anhui's practice proves that high-quality development is not isolated economic growth, but a symphony of technology, industry, countryside, and ecological culture. HKSAR NPC deputies could fully play their role as bridges and bonds, deepening strategic synergy between the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
The development of the Northern Metropolis represents a pivotal opportunity for Hong Kong to achieve economic transformation and improve livelihood wellbeing in the new era. By learning from Anhui's successful practices, taking technology as the engine, the countryside as the source of vitality, and ecological culture as the soul, Hong Kong will surely build the Northern Metropolis into an international modern new city characterized by urban-rural integration, liveability, and business suitability, demonstrating greater achievements as it integrates into the overall national development.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Related News:
Opinion | Confiscating crime-related assets of Jimmy Lai is a standard international practice
Comment