To lead Greater Bay Area integration, Hong Kong can look to San Francisco

Hong Kong’s five-year development plan (2026-2030) emphasizes advancing regional cooperation platforms and fostering collaboration with mainland areas. Shenzhen similarly aims to deepen practical cooperation with Hong Kong and Macau through key cooperation platforms in its 15th five-year plan. However, the Greater Bay Area's integration is hampered by differing legal, regulatory, and governance systems under the "one country, two systems" framework.

Businesses, researchers, and public agencies continue to face challenges related to cross-border data sharing, funding, and regulatory compliance.

A model of successful regional cooperation is the San Francisco Bay Area, where nine counties and over a hundred cities and towns have formed the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) to address shared challenges. ABAG operates as a policy platform with joint powers agreements, enabling coordinated approaches to issues such as land use, housing, transport, and environmental management.

This regional governance framework facilitates data-sharing by establishing a shared data platform, the Bay Area Spatial Information System (BASIS), which standardizes and disseminates data sets for regional planning while retaining local data ownership.

The San Francisco Bay Area's experience demonstrates the importance of a stable institutional framework to bridge rules, set common standards, and provide governance structures capable of handling disputes. For Hong Kong to lead the Greater Bay Area integration, it must develop a clear roadmap for building cooperation platforms that maintain the city's high degree of autonomy and distinct political structure.

The real challenge lies in addressing the fundamental question of how Hong Kong can guide regional cooperation while enabling all cities to move beyond siloed efforts and build a robust regional cooperation architecture in the Greater Bay Area.