Opinion | Hong Kong is losing to Singapore as Pearl River Delta's role model
Despite warnings it is to Lion City, not southern neighbour, Guangzhou looks for urban renewal
Back in 2008, when he was Executive Council convenor, Leung Chun-ying warned that Hong Kong faced being marginalised in the mainland's rapid economic development.
Five years later, and now Hong Kong's Chief Executive, he has been presented with proof, with Hong Kong losing out to Singapore as a development model for the Pearl River Delta.
Guangzhou's city government announced one of its biggest urban renewal projects in years late last month, saying it would team up with CapitaLand, which is 40 per cent owned by Temasek, Singapore's state-owned investment company, to rebuild the city's Datansha Island, with total investment in the project of up to 28 billion yuan.
Local media reported that CapitaLand would be responsible for designing and rebuilding the 3.55 square kilometre island, in western Guangzhou. Other Singaporean companies would provide basic services to residents, including rubbish sorting and kindergartens. Guangzhou said it would make Datansha a "mini Singapore".
It was the second time in five years that Guangdong officials had revealed intense interest in the Singapore model. In 2010, they signed agreements with Temasek subsidiary Singbridge to jointly develop a new satellite town in the city's northeast over two decades.
The new town, Guangzhou Knowledge City, will be the third state-level Sino-Singapore co-operation project on the mainland, after the Suzhou Industrial Park in the 1990s and Tianjin Eco-city in the late 2000s.
It is no surprise that Singapore is wielding more influence on the mainland, with top leaders in Beijing long having admired and tried to learn from the model created by the political strongman Lee Kuan Yew.
