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The Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) conducted a telephone survey from 26 February to 11 March 2025 to gauge public views on the government’s Greater Bay Area (GBA) plan. The survey found that 39.4% of the respondents deemed the plan an opportunity for Hong Kong; and more than 40% agreed that the plan would benefit Hong Kong’s transport and logistics industry and innovative technology industry respectively.

In addition to the 39.4% who agreed that the plan would be an opportunity for Hong Kong, 21.5% disagreed and 32.2% were neutral. Compared to last year’s survey, the proportion of the respondents who deemed the plan an opportunity increased by 4.5 percentage points, but the Chi-square test showed that the differences in the percentage distributions between the two surveys were not statistically significant. 

The survey also asked respondents about their views on whether Hong Kong’s finance, transport and logistics, and innovative technology industries would benefit from the GBA development plan. 29.0% of the respondents agreed that the GBA plan would benefit Hong Kong’s finance industry, an increase of 6.4 percentage points from last year’s survey; while 31.5% disagreed, a decrease of 6.3 percentage points; and 30.1% were neutral. The changes in percentages were statistically significant.

As to whether the GBA plan would benefit Hong Kong’s transport and logistics industry, 44.4% of the respondents agreed, 18.5% disagreed and 28.7% were neutral. Compared to last year’s survey, the proportions of the respondents who agreed or disagreed increased by 5.7 percentage points and decreased by 5.3 percentage points respectively. The changes in percentages were statistically significant.

40.7% of the respondents believed the GBA plan could benefit Hong Kong’s innovative technology industries, while 23.7% disagreed and 27.9% were neutral. Compared to last year’s survey, the proportions of the respondents who agreed increased by 5.9 percentage points, while the proportions for “disagree” or “neutral” decreased by 0.9 and 6.1 percentage points respectively. The Chi-square test showed a statistically significant difference in the distribution of percentages between the two surveys.

54.9% of the respondents believed that Hong Kong’s participation in the GBA plan would lead to both opportunities and challenges, an increase of 4.0 percentage points compared to last year; 25.5% highlighted that the plan would bring more opportunities to Hong Kong; while 15.2% emphasised the challenges that would arise for Hong Kong, a decrease of 2.9 percentage points from last year’s survey (18.1%). The Chi-square test showed that the differences in the percentage distributions between the two surveys were not statistically significant.

The survey also found that 61.7% of the respondents viewed the competitive advantage of Hongkongers in mainland cities in the GBA as being “quite little” (33.7%) or “none” (28.0%), while 29.6% regarded it as “quite large” (24.2%) or “very large” (5.4%). Compared to a similar survey conducted last year, the proportion of the respondents who thought Hongkongers’ competitive advantage was quite large or very large increased by 0.9 percentage points in total. The Chi-square test showed that the differences in the percentage distributions between the two surveys were not statistically significant.

When asked whether they would like to move to mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area to live or work, 62.9% said they did not intend to do so, a decrease of 2.0 percentage points from last year’s survey; while 31.7% replied they would like to do so if given a chance, an increase of 1.6 percentage points compared to last year. However, the Chi-square test showed that the differences in the percentage distributions between the two surveys were not statistically significant.

The survey also found that 41.4% of the respondents said they would like to encourage young people in Hong Kong to move to a mainland city in the GBA and 41.9% said they would not, while 16.7% answered “depends on the situation” (9.9%) or “don’t know/hard to say” (6.8%). These proportions were similar to those of the 2024 survey and the Chi-square test showed that the differences in the percentage distributions between the two surveys were not statistically significant.

The survey also asked the respondents to assess Hong Kong’s attractiveness to overseas talent in the areas of innovation and technology. 62.1% viewed the appeal of Hong Kong as being “quite small” (36.7%) or “very small” (25.4%), while 27.7% considered it “quite large” (23.3%) or “very large” (4.4%). Compared to last year’s survey, the proportion answering “quite large” or “very large” increased by 3.9 percentage points in total, but the Chi-square test showed that the percentage distributions of the two surveys were not statistically significantly different.

As to Hong Kong’s attractiveness to mainland talents in the areas of innovation and technology, 38.8% saw it as “quite small” (26.1%) or “very small” (12.7%), while 52.3% saw it as “quite large” (39.2%) or “very large” (13.1%). Compared to last year’s survey, the proportion answering “quite large” or “very large” increased by 5.7 percentage points in total but the Chi-square test showed that the differences in the percentage distributions between the two surveys were not statistically significant.

Regarding which city would benefit more from cooperation in innovation and technology between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, 42.3% of the respondents saw it as equally beneficial to both places, a decrease of 1.9 percentage points from last year’s survey; 36.1% believed that more benefits would accrue to Shenzhen, similar to the figure from the previous year; and 16.5% thought that Hong Kong would benefit more, an increase of 3.2 percentage points compared to the 2024 survey. However, the Chi-square test showed that the differences in the percentage distributions between the two surveys were not statistically significant.

A total of 711 respondents aged 18 or above (landline: 175; mobile: 536) were successfully interviewed in this survey, with a response rate of 61.0% (landline: 57.8%; mobile: 62.0%). The sampling error is estimated at plus or minus 3.68 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Furthermore, the data in this survey was weighted based on the probability of the respondents being selected via a dual-frame sampling design and the relevant age-sex distribution of the population published by the Census and Statistics Department before analysis.