International Mega-City of Hong Kong+Shenzhen

By 2020, Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city, and Hong Kong will be integrated into one mega-city. When Shenzhen and Hong Kong are merged, it is likely that the world’s third largest city will be created, following New York and Tokyo, in terms of the gross product. On November 22, the Chinese media reported that the "Comprehensive Plan for Shenzhen (2007-2020)," elaborating on the integration of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, had been disclosed for the first time on the previous day.

The Plan was endorsed by the Ministry of Construction on October 16, 2007 and is awaiting the formal permission of State Council Members, which will soon follow. According to the Plan, Shenzhen and Hong Kong will commence their merging process in six aspects over the next 13 years – transportation, customs, ecology, construction, finance, and information technology (IT) industry.

To serve this objective, an express train route will be built by 2020, directly linking Hong Kong International Airport and Shenzhen Bao`an International Airport, as the first step of the process. The express train linking the two cities, which are 40km apart, will allow the two airports to function as one, in actuality, by shortening the transfer time between the two to 17 minutes.

In the boundary zones of the two cities, a high-technology valley will be created to jointly attract foreign investment. They will also promote plans to allow the residents to move between the two cities without restriction.

In addition, policies will be promoted that will allow students of Shenzhen and Hong Kong to freely enter universities in their counterpart cities and also establish a joint government building.

Shenzhen and Hong Kong will create a bureau for joint development in order to integrate their administrations and share policies for financial integration.

The Chinese government expects that the gross production of the mega-city will amount to 1.1 trillion dollars by 2020, when the two cities are merged, ranking it third, status following the 1.78 trillion dollars of New York and 1.43 trillion dollars of Tokyo.

It also anticipates that the merger of Hong Kong and Shenzhen will naturally help to accomplish the absorption of Hong Kong into the mainland, overcoming the current "One Country, Two Systems" situation. It aims to kill two birds with a stone, expecting that the integration in economy, administration and life circles of residents will naturally eliminate the political friction, including the democratization of Hong Kong.

The Chinese government believes that Shenzhen will have no serious difficulty integrating with Hong Kong economically by 2020, as it is showing a GDP growth rate of 15% per year, though its current GDP per capita is 8,800 dollars, one third of that of Hong Kong.

The director of the Shenzhen Urban Planning Bureau, Wang Feng, who drafted the Shenzhen-Hong Kong integration plan, said, “I held discussions with numerous parties in Hong Kong, including the Council for Sustainable Development, Urban Planning Bureau, Real Estate Bureau, Environmental Protection Bureau, Agriculture and Fishery Bureau, and Hong Kong Institute of Planners, to draft this plan.”

The Chinese media said that Shenzhen’s plan resembles the “Plan to Establish an Integrated Hong Kong and Shenzhen” announced by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen on October 10, 2007.