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The State officially announced the outline development plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Greater Bay Area hereafter) last February. To gauge public views on the development plan, the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) conducted a survey from 16 to 21 March 2019. A total of 703 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 36.3%. The sampling error was estimated at plus or minus 3.70 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. 

Major findings are summarised as follows:

The survey found that 37.3% of the respondents deemed the outline development plan an opportunity for development in Hong Kong, while 18.6% disagreed and 36.8% said ‘in-between’. 

The outline development plan listed Hong Kong as a core city in the Greater Bay Area. Of the 699 respondents, 45.8% believed the participation of Hong Kong in the plan brought both benefits and challenges. While 30.5% underlined benefits to Hong Kong, 10.6% highlighted challenges. In contrast to the findings in 2017 and 2018, no statistically significant change was found. 

In particular, 42.0% of the respondents agreed there were benefits from innovative technology to industries in Hong Kong, while 24.5% said there were not and 26.0% said ‘in-between’. Of the total respondents, 47.8% agreed there would be a broadened spectrum of work and life for Hongkongers, while 28.6% said there would not be and 17.9% said ‘in-between’. 

Despite views on possible benefits, 45.3% of the respondents worried the plan would blur the boundary of two systems, but 28.2% disagreed and 14.4% said ‘in-between’. When asked if the plan might reduce resources to Hongkongers, 42.3% of the respondents speculated it might, but 29.1% disagreed and 21.4% said ‘in-between’. 

The outline development plan offered to ease the movement of Hongkongers to work or to live in mainland cities of the Greater Bay Area, but 53.8% of the respondents saw the competitiveness of Hongkongers in mainland cities as ‘very low’ (38.1%) or ‘none at all’ (15.7%), while 30.3% saw it as ‘high’ (26.2%) or ‘very high’ (4.1%). Compared to the findings of 2018, no statistically significant change was found.

Of the 703 respondents, 41.8% said they had no intention to move to mainland cities of the Greater Bay Area, while 37.8% said they would. The three most cited categories of reason for not moving were related to ‘negative impressions of mainland politics’ (20.4%), ‘negative impressions of mainland society’ (20.4%), and ‘various individual reasons’ (20.0%). 

The three most cited categories of reason given by those who said they would move were related to ‘opportunities of mainland economy’ (39.8%), ‘cost and quality of life in mainland’ (36.8%), and ‘various individual reasons’ (6.4%).