Greater Bay Area offers jobs, career opportunities, lower living costs, but will young Hongkongers bite? Many need to be persuaded.
- Negative perceptions of working culture, regulations in mainland China put off many from moving
- Those working across the border say it is a chance to learn, burnish credentials, get ahead
It took Hongkonger Jerry Chan Chun-lai some time to adapt to life across the border in Shenzhen, going cashless everywhere and speaking Mandarin instead of Cantonese. He missed his parents and brother back home too.
Chan, 31, who is single and manager of assurance of multinational professional services network PwC, says half his clients are from the mainland.
He used to make cross-border business trips every month before the Covid-19 pandemic, then had to resort to videoconferencing.
When his company offered employees the opportunity to relocate to the bay area this year, he took it right away.
He believes being raised in Hong Kong’s multicultural society, his command of English and global perspective give him an edge over his mainland counterparts.
Over the past four months, he has been seeing clients in emerging industries such as financial technology and medical technology, and start-ups.
Mobility across Greater Bay Area will help Hong Kong’s youth
“If I stayed stagnant in Hong Kong, I would not be exposed to many new industries and businesses, which helps me grow holistically,” he says.
A new survey by a Hong Kong think tank found that one in eight Hongkongers aged 18 to 34 is interested in working in the bay area. But most are still reluctant to move, not least because of deep-rooted negative perceptions of mainland China.
Deterred by poor Mandarin, family commitments
Acknowledging the difficulty faced by fresh graduates looking for jobs in Hong Kong, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong said earlier this year that the government was helping them find work in the bay area.
Hong Kong recorded an unemployment rate of 4.1 per cent among all those aged 15 and above during the three months to November. But the jobless rate for those aged 15 to 19 was 13 per cent, the highest among all age groups, followed by 7.1 per cent for those 20 to 29.
MWYO, a think tank focused on issues related to young Hongkongers and formed by tycoon Lau Ming-wai, vice-chairman of the government’s Youth Development Commission, commissioned a survey between May and July to probe attitudes to working in the bay area.
It found that 12.5 per cent of the 1,002 respondents aged 18 to 34 were interested in taking full-time jobs there, a slight drop from 13.4 per cent in a similar survey two years ago.
06:19
High hopes for China’s Greater Bay Area, but integrating 11 cities will pose challenges
Among those interested, about two in three believed the Guangdong cities offered better career prospects than Hong Kong, which they felt had become less competitive.
Some thought working there would help broaden their horizons and provide good learning opportunities, while others were drawn by the lower living costs and higher incomes.
But for the majority not interested in moving, nearly half cited personal reasons, including their lack of fluency in Mandarin and having to look after family members at home.
Negative perceptions of the mainland were a key factor that put off young people too. Respondents felt negatively about all six areas covered in the survey – medical and health care, information freedom, social security, environmental protection, food safety, and democracy and rule of law.
Government, businesses ‘must work together to make most of Greater Bay Area’
MWYO researcher Justin Chan Long-hin, who conducted the survey, said despite the slight drop of the proportion interested in working in the bay area, there were still 180,000 young people willing to move, and more were actively seeking information and jobs there.
The survey also found that those in senior positions or with mainland work experience were more attracted to moving to the bay area.
While negative perceptions of the mainland are hard to change quickly, he says it might be better to focus on helping those willing and suitable for jobs across the border, and to provide the support they need.
Hong Kong talents sought after on mainland
Another survey this year by Baptist University researchers, of 2,003 Hongkongers aged 21 to 40, found that young Hongkongers were more keen on work visits or internships in the bay area than moving to live there.
Nearly half saw the advantage of gaining an understanding of the mainland market, but the major concerns of those unwilling to move were their perceived difficulties in adapting to mainland work culture, policies and regulations.
Dr Jiang Jin, assistant professor of the university’s department of sociology who led the survey, notes that despite the generally lukewarm interest, many were willing to spend a short time in the bay area for work visits or internships.
“There should be more flexibility in encouraging them to work in the bay area, starting with support for short-term activities, which can enable them to explore the area and the opportunities there, and ease their concerns,” she says.
Greater Bay Area: Hong Kong youth should grab the opportunities on offer
She adds that those who do move should also be welcome to return to Hong Kong later, and their experience and understanding of the bay area can be an asset to their career development at home.
“True regional integration should involve a two-way flow of talents,” she says.
The survey found that about half the respondents felt confident that their proficiency in English, Mandarin and Cantonese was a plus, while others believed their international outlook, grasp of Eastern and Western cultures, creativity and other qualities helped too.
10:01
Hong Kong can't miss Greater Bay Area boat in post-Covid-19 recovery, Victor Fung of Fung Group says
“If mainland businesses are expanding globally, they would like to seek such talents from Hong Kong who also have a stronger international perspective and better command of English,” he says.
PwC has more than 200 staff from Hong Kong working in its offices in the bay area. Most are under 40 and account for 7 per cent of its total workforce there.
Emily Chak Sin-ki, PwC’s partner of tax services, says the company has been sending Hong Kong staff there for stints of several months to three years. Some returned to the city, but others have chosen to remain there permanently.
In choosing staff to send across the border, the company prefers team players and learners, those likely to adapt easily to a new environment, with a good understanding of the bay area and passion for developing their career there.
“More on-site experience and exposure to the bay area market will help their career no matter whether they choose to remain there or return to Hong Kong,” she says, adding that she expects the company to send more young staff there.
More support needed to prompt the move
To encourage young Hongkongers to work in Guangdong, the Hong Kong government started the Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Scheme in January.
It aimed to provide 2,000 positions for Hongkongers who received a bachelor’s degree or higher qualification between 2019 and this year, offering them a monthly salary of at least HK$18,000 (US$2,300). Fresh graduates in Hong Kong received an average starting monthly salary of HK$16,077 in 2020, according to job portal JobsDB.
Employers joining the scheme receive a monthly allowance of HK$10,000 for each graduate employed for up to 18 months.
According to the Labour Department, more than 410 businesses provided about 3,500 positions under the initiative.
Greater Bay Area start-ups upbeat on revenue, according to observers, poll
The scheme received more than 20,000 applications by the deadline in August and over 1,000 Hongkongers have started work, more than half in finance, insurance and business services.
Baptist University’s Jiang feels the government should relook the scheme’s eligibility criteria, to relax the educational qualifications and period of graduation so that more young Hongkongers can take up jobs in the bay area.
Think tank MWYO hopes the government will provide career and living support through online platforms and its mainland offices for Hongkongers working in the bay area, and encourage more young people to join sports and cultural exchanges across the border for them to know the area better and improve their perceptions of the mainland.
Gary Tang Kin-yat, an assistant professor at the department of social science of Hang Seng University, says although Hong Kong’s social unrest in 2019 played a part in dampening young Hongkongers’ interest in working across the border, the major factor was the slowing economic development on the mainland in recent years.
Tang, who is associate director of the university’s Centre for Public Policy Research, says rather than taking up jobs with mainland employers, many young Hongkongers prefer to be sent there by Hong Kong employers on work stints of up to two years.
He suggests that Hong Kong employers open up more positions on the mainland for their staff from the city. The government could provide financial support for small and medium-sized enterprises to explore expanding into the bay area, creating job opportunities for their Hong Kong staff.
Hong Kong can be the Greater Bay Area’s San Francisco, US think tank says
Urging the authorities to focus on supporting young people in sectors with better prospects across the border, such as science and technology, he says they can help to match mainland employers in these sectors with young Hongkongers.
“The tendency among young Hongkongers to work in the bay area will stay, but they need more support,” he says.
Tommy Yuen Man-chung, Commissioner for the Development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, a post set up by the city government last year to promote and coordinate working in the bay area, says the authorities will review the youth employment scheme and make improvements.
He adds that more such schemes are likely, and the government is not setting any quota on the number who can go.
“It is a personal choice. The Greater Bay Area offers one more option for young Hongkongers,” he says.
