China: An International Journal

Abstract:

The Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) was signed between Hong Kong and mainland China in 2003. It helped Hong Kong to recover its economy and widened the gate of economic integration between the two places. In 2015, the central government further proposed the concept of the Guangdong– Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) under the planning of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This article proposes that the Chinese authority wishes the better implementation of the CEPA under the GBA framework to serve as an example of economic cooperation for the international communities. This article provides insights from two perspectives: (i) it analyses the inherent problems of the CEPA's initial settings, which are often neglected in the current literature; and (ii) it explains how the GBA would improve the collaborative governance of the CEPA implementation.