Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the long-delayed and over-budget Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge on Tuesday, billed as a major step forward in China's plan to turn the Pearl River Delta into a technology hub to rival Silicon Valley.

But critics worry the 55km-long bridge connecting the mainland city of Zhuhai with the semi-autonomous territories of Hong Kong and Macau is as much about politics as it is business.

"It is a grand political gesture - uniting Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland," said veteran Hong Kong-based analyst Philip Bowring, adding the area's existing transport links are more than sufficient. "It is certainly not a commercial gesture that is for sure."

China is stepping up initiatives to increase trade across the region and at home - the opening of the mega-bridge comes a month after a new high-speed rail link started carrying passengers from Hong Kong to the mainland.

The government in Beijing and authorities in Hong Kong and Macau, which have funded the bridge together, say it will meet the demand of both freight and passenger traffic, and boost economic development within the cities of the Greater Bay Area, which are home to an estimated 69 million people.

The bridge "will facilitate personnel exchange, and bring strategic significance for the development of both Hong Kong and the Bay Area", Frank Chan Fan, Hong Kong's secretary for transport and housing, said in a statement.

"The challenge is to make sure that the separate systems of Hong Kong and China are preserved as the two countries implement institutional reforms," said Jiang Lin, an economics professor at Sun Yat-sen University.

"It will be a dilemma because the boundary between the countries does blur with developments like the bridge and the high-speed rail."

The world's factory

The Greater Bay Area, first mooted in 2017, is supposed to turn the region from a global manufacturing hub into a centre for innovation in science and technology.

Although concerns are growing about a China-US trade war, a survey from KPMG China, HSBC and the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce released earlier this month found businesses broadly supportive of the Bay Area plan, although 68 percent were concerned about regulatory ambiguity. Policy coordination and the movement of capital were also seen as challenges among the executives surveyed.

Kow Ping, CEO of Hong Kong medical start-up Wellbeing Digital, is among those who see the bridge as a step forward - for both Hong Kong and the wider region.

"In general, a lot of the manufacturing for the world happens in Guangdong, and the commerce happens in Hong Kong," Kow told Al Jazeera. "I think anything that connects consumers, manufacturers, and the docks are a positive thing. If this bridge will do that more efficiently, then there will be benefits." 

Wellbeing Digital, which started business in 2013 in Hong Kong's Science Park, now holds 28 patents and has filed for 52.

"Hong Kong can leverage Shenzhen or Guangdong much better than other places," he said. "You can create a prototype very rapidly and have what you are working towards in your hands. Then, you can start testing right away and get it out there sooner, and that speed is really important with medical products."

The bridge will shorten the driving time from Hong Kong International Airport to Zhuhai from four hours to just 45 minutes, as well as halving the commuting time between the ports. Bus services along the six-lane highway are also expected to offer a more frequent service than the Hong Kong-Macau ferry.

Construction on the bridge started nine years ago, and the project was supposed to be completed by 2016. The delays - related to road construction in Hong Kong and the territory's environmental standards - have helped inflate costs. The last estimate of $2.2bn was released in January.

Source: Aljazeera

BDST: 1256 HRS, OCT 23, 2018

AH/SMS