President Xi Jinping declares Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) open
Oct-30-2018 By : fcccadmin
After a delay of two years and a cost overrun of billions of dollars, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge was declared open by the Chinese President Xi Jinping at a ceremony attended by about 700 guests at the immigration clearance facilities in Zhuhai. The bridge is the world’s longest sea crossing. Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng said the bridge would bring Hong Kong and mainland China closer in terms of economic and trade activities. Han and other officials, including National Development and Reform Commission Chairman He Lifeng and Guangdong Communist Party Secretary Li Xi, attended the ceremony, where the mega project was described as a sign of successful cooperation between mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao and a demonstration of China’s engineering capabilities. The bridge could withstand threats such as Typhoon Manghut. Construction started in 2009, and the bridge was originally due to open in 2016.
The bridge will reduce travel time from Hong Kong to Zhuhai and Macao from four hours to about 45 minutes. Mainly located in Chinese mainland waters, the bridge will be managed by the HZMB Authority, which was jointly founded by the governments of Guangdong province and Hong Kong and Macao in 2010.
Vice Premier Han said it was the first time the three parties had worked together on a major infrastructure project. “It opens all three places up for greater exchange in economics and trade. It also enhances the competitiveness of the Pearl River Delta,” he added. In a 2008 consultancy study, 33,100 vehicles and 171,800 passengers were predicted to cross the bridge daily by 2030. But that estimate was lowered to 29,100 vehicles and 126,000 passenger trips in a 2016 study, down 12% and 26% respectively.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam highlighted three cross-border infrastructure projects – the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point, which will open early next year – and said each would help strengthen the integration between Hong Kong, Macao and mainland China. Lam said the bridge had provided a good foundation for the “Greater Bay Area” development – a technology-led economic hub comprising Hong Kong, Macao and nine mainland Chinese cities with the aim of rivaling California’s Silicon Valley.
President Xi Jinping has said that China must become “self-reliant”, state media reported, as he toured the country’s manufacturing hub of Southern Guangdong for the first time in six years. He visited the precision moulding plant and a key laboratory at Gree Electric Appliances in Zhuhai. “To go from a big country to a strong one, we must give paramount importance to the development of the real economy,” Xi said during the visit. “Manufacturing is a key to the real economy, and the core strength of manufacturing is innovation, or the control of core technologies. We must seek innovation by relying on ourselves, and I hope all enterprises will work in this direction,” he added.
President Xi also visited the pilot economic zone of Qianhai, and poorer areas of the province involved in his poverty alleviation program. He said that “no one would be left behind” in China’s drive to eradicate extreme poverty. Xi hailed the free-trade zone (FTZ) policy as a “milestone” for a “new era” of reform in a message to a high-level forum marking the fifth anniversary of the opening of the country’s first FTZ in Shanghai. China has 12 free-trade zones, with the latest opening in Hainan in April.
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