Four young people recently became the first permanent residents of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to sign employment contracts with the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government after going through standard exams. They will work within the State establishment as public servants (referred to as civil servants in Hong Kong). This signifies more career opportunities are emerging on the Chinese mainland for youths from Hong Kong and Macao who aspire to be a part of the nation’s development strategy as well as achieve individual advancement.
As the Greater Bay Area development continues, more cities are expected to open career opportunities as well as professional qualification exams for which Hong Kong and Macao residents compete with local applicants, and government jobs are just the icing on the cake
On the Shenzhen municipal government’s part, the move demonstrates its welcome to youths from Hong Kong to pursue career opportunities on the mainland. For Hong Kong and Macao youths, working in the Shenzhen municipal government (and hopefully in other local governments and even the central government in the future) will help them better understand the motherland, and let them find a different personal development path altogether. It is safe to assume that more such career opportunities will soon emerge on the mainland within the Greater Bay Area.
The Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area includes “(to) study the possibility of Hong Kong and Macao residents who are Chinese nationals to apply for public service positions”. The four young people from the HKSAR who were officially hired by the Shenzhen municipal government will be working in administrative, financial, urban planning and foreign personnel management positions as part of the implementation of the Greater Bay Area outline development plan, specifically serving the development of the Greater Bay Area and the “pilot demonstration zone for socialism with Chinese characteristics”. Since these jobs are created only for Hong Kong and Macao youths, some 80 applicants on average vied for each opening through specially designed exams. It proves such career opportunities are popular among aspiring young people from Hong Kong and Macao.
The latest population census of the country shows that at least 370,000 Hong Kong residents live on the mainland, accounting for about 5 percent of Hong Kong’s population. This shows it is not uncommon for Hong Kong residents to do business, live, pursue education or spend retirement on the mainland. As the Greater Bay Area development continues, more cities are expected to open career opportunities as well as professional qualification exams for which Hong Kong and Macao residents compete with local applicants, and government jobs are just the icing on the cake.
By hiring Hong Kong and Macao youths, the Shenzhen municipal government has progressed from an open policy to system innovation in demonstrating the promises of socialism with Chinese characteristics, specifically in encouraging and supporting youths from Hong Kong and Macao to be directly involved in the nation’s development strategy. This will also help expand the integration of various resources among Greater Bay Area cities, including human resources, and create more space for Hong Kong and Macao youths to pursue career development beyond their home cities.
Hiring young people from Hong Kong for public service jobs will also encourage State-owned enterprises and public institutions to do the same. It is only a matter of time before equal job opportunities are available on the mainland for Hong Kong and Macao residents. That is what the central government means by encouraging and supporting Hong Kong and Macao to integrate their own development into the overall development strategy of the nation. It is the best way to achieve common prosperity of all parties concerned in the Greater Bay Area.
Under “one country, two systems”, Hong Kong and the mainland exercise very different social systems, as are their civil/public service systems. In the early years of reform and opening-up, Hong Kong for quite a long time played a teacher’s role to mainland government officials through workshops, study tours and whatnot, helping the latter become more efficient as well as opening their eyes to the outside world.
After 40-plus years of reform and opening-up, the mainland has built up its own modern public service system that is clean and more efficient than in the past. Its decision-making and execution capabilities are so much higher than before that Hong Kong can now learn a thing or two from the mainland. For example, the whole public service sector has been mobilized in the fight to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, and the result is the best in the world today.
Hong Kong can definitely take a page from the mainland’s playbook in this respect. Now that four Hong Kong youths have been hired to work in the Shenzhen municipal government, more areas of public service exchange can be expected to open between the mainland and Hong Kong in the years to come.
The author is a current affairs commentator.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.