MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese): Four Panels of the Legislative Council jointly conducted a duty visit to five cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area ("the Greater Bay Area"), namely Dongguan, Zhongshan, Nanhai and Guangzhou. Among the 32 Members, some of them seldom go to the Mainland. After the visit, both establishment and non-establishment Members are amazed at the rapid development of the cities in the Greater Bay Area over recent years. And the tourism facilities in particular, which I am interested in, are striking, and some development models are worth using as a reference for Hong Kong. The first one is an old town revitalization project in Foshan City called Lingnan Tiandi.

Lingnan Tiandi in Foshan is of the same series of development as the Xintiandi in Shanghai. Both are a large-scale old town redevelopment jointly taken forward by a Hong Kong developer and the local governments concerned. On the premise of conserving historic buildings and preserving intangible cultural heritage and local cultural characteristics, the project seeks to infuse the old city with a modern touch and modern facilities, giving it a new look. Apart from a place of monuments and sightseeing spots of aesthetic values, Lingnan Tiandi also serves other leisure functions such as entertainment, residence, retail sales, catering, etc.

Lingnan Tiandi is the biggest old town redevelopment project in Guangdong Province, and is more than 10 times bigger in scale than the Xintiandi in Shanghai. The project first needs to preserve over 20 spots of historic heritage with Lingnan characteristics. One of them is the Zumiao Temple which is a major national historical site. The project also needs to fully discover and display the cultural aspect of Foshan and its local characteristics of being the home of Cantonese opera, ceramic art, martial art and fine food. Apart from refurbishing all buildings of historic values, the project has also added a theatre, exhibition hall, art gallery, museum, etc. to give local residents and tourists quality and spacious space for cultural and recreational activities. Hotels, Grade A office buildings and retail streets are located at the periphery to facilitate the need of city development and enhancement while preserving the old look of the city.

The difficulty in redeveloping an old city is that most of the historic buildings are in a dilapidated state. It is much more difficult and expensive to preserve them than to pull them down. Many cities would rather opt for demolition and redevelopment to address their housing and economic development needs. But this will ruin the years of history and culture of a place.

It takes the determination and resolution of the local government to turn Lingnan Tiandi into a commercially viable tourism project without the need to demolish the original historic buildings. The local government understands that by its power alone it cannot make the project successful. It needs the experience of the commercial sector in business operation and professional management. They dare to borrow the collaborated development model used in Xintiandi of Shanghai and let the government and the business sector to give its strength full play through collaboration. It proves that the model is effective.

Actually, many old districts in Hong Kong need redevelopment and many projects in the New Territories need to be taken forward as well. It is worthwhile to learn from the collaboration model of Lingnan Tiandi. The Government should rid itself of the devil of Government-business collusion in its heart and welcome investors from around the world with an accommodating mindset, so that Hong Kong can reap better and bigger returns in the Greater Bay area development.

President, another thought that I have after the duty visit is that the cites in the Greater Bay Area have done a better job in innovation and technology ("I&T") and in encouraging entrepreneurship by making good use of the talents and technology resources in Hong Kong. We visited the Weizhong Bank in Shenzhen, which is an Internet-only bank initiated by a Hong Kong people who is also the CEO of the bank. And the Songshan Lake Xbot Park in Dongguan is developed by professors from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Mainland tertiary institutions. The Xbot Park provides office space and capital supports for entrepreneurs. The gross output of the successful business teams is now worth over $1.9 billion. It is a major project in Dongguan. The services and products of these two corporations occupy a leading position in the industry with extensive application.

Many cities in the Greater Bay Area now provide a dedicated platform and preferential policies for young people from Hong Kong and Macao. For example, in order to enhance their sense of belonging to start their business and settle in Foshan, the Foshan government provides free office space, cheap boarding, start-up funding supports, tax concession and a one-stop licensing service to attract quality projects, technologies and talents to settle in Foshan. This in turn brings economic benefits to the area.

In the Policy Address this year, the Government announces that it will collaborate with a non-government organization to roll out a pilot scheme to encourage Hong Kong young people to utilize entrepreneurial bases in the Greater Bay Area. The Hong Kong United Youth Association has recently launched a pilot scheme jointly with the Home Affairs Bureau to take forward young entrepreneurship in the Greater Bay Area. Under the scheme, three bases in Shenzhen will be located to provide one-stop entrepreneurial support and preferential policies for young entrepreneurs to settle in Shenzhen. We hold that these are feasible approaches. Given that the Government has already taken its first step forward, we hope that it will actively continue with the work.

Hong Kong and various cities in the Greater Bay Area have their edges in the economic environment. Mainland cities are more versatile in resources distribution and more mature with its hardware support. They also have an enormous consumer market. Hong Kong, on the other hand, has a sound legal system and a simple tax structure. We also have a global vision and advanced technologies. In order for Hong Kong to advance forward, we must leverage with the edges of the Greater Bay Area cities to complement each other, and in turn attract high quality talents from various places to Hong Kong to enhance our competitiveness in the future.

President, I so submit.