Opinion

As Shenzhen quarantine scalping shows, regional integration is easier said than done

All throughout the Greater Bay Area, disparate ways of doing things and different expectations of how life works raise challenges for deeper integration

Hard work and open minds are necessary, as Hong Kong seeks to participate in the Greater Bay Area

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People travel across the Shenzhen Bay border on December 28, 2021. Those who have tried booking quarantine rooms across the border are likely to have encountered scalper bots. Photo: May Tse

Patrick Jiang is an honorary research associate at the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Published: 9:15am, 7 Jul 2022

With the new administration in place, Hong Kong has begun tackling its most pressing issues with renewed vigour. Participation in the Greater Bay Area, undoubtedly the most significant factor in the city’s near-term development, will again be a matter of urgency.

The Greater Bay Area is, at its core, a regional integration project. On a technical level, it implies a harmonisation of business and governance practices, which throws up a number of challenges because the accepted ways of doing things can diverge across the region.

One doesn’t have to be a business tycoon to have experienced this; countless people have been kept apart from their families and friends in Guangdong during the pandemic, for example, and those who have considered making the trip across the border would probably have encountered scalper bots.

Currently, Shenzhen allows up to 2,000 people a day to cross the border, if they have reserved quarantine rooms. The rooms can be booked through a government website on a first-come, first-served basis, and a mad scramble begins at 10am every day. Not surprisingly, the system has been gamed by bots, with so-called “travel agents” selling reservations for HK$2,000 to HK$3,500. That’s a pretty hefty mark-up on what is supposed to be a free government service.