The 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) adopted the Resolution on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization.

Since the official launch of China’s reform and opening-up in 1978, all the CPC central committees’ third plenary sessions have been primarily focused on formulating strategies and policy guidelines for nationwide development in the following five to 10 years, and this year’s was no exception.

When explaining the resolution at the third plenary session, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and president of the People’s Republic of China, said that reform will be even more prominent in the Party’s governance agenda and further deepened seamlessly around advancing Chinese modernization. After carefully studying the resolution, I would like to sum up its significance and inspiration for Hong Kong in its pursuit of lasting prosperity.

First, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region must draw up a reform blueprint for the next 5 to10 years, concentrating on strengthening and elevating its status as a center of international finance, shipping and trade, all of which are considered Hong Kong’s inherent advantages.

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Financial services are one of the key pillars of Hong Kong’s economy, accounting for 22.4 percent of the city’s annual GDP and maintaining its position as one of the world’s leading international centers, thanks to such advantages as a solid industry foundation, a common law system and judicial independence, a simple tax system, no foreign exchange controls and the unique “one country, two systems” principle.

These stand ready to assist the Chinese mainland’s financial system reform in the new era, increasing opening-up, and improving financial resources distribution, efficiency and capacity.

Hong Kong’s financial system reform requires three distinct approaches:

1. Keep advancing yuan (RMB) trade tools innovation, upgrading RMB financing infrastructure and offering quality professional service to sustain the city’s leading position in global offshore yuan trade.

2. Help mainland-based enterprises pursue offshore financing — from finding initial venture investors to getting listed on the Hong Kong securities exchange — thus serving the country’s physical economy in building up more world-class Chinese enterprises and making the nation a major power in science and technology.

3. Develop tech finance, green finance, universally beneficial finance, pension finance and digital finance.

As for shipping and logistics sector reform, faced with competition from mainland and overseas ports amid geopolitical sea changes and continuing shifts in the global supply chain pattern, Hong Kong’s container throughput has dropped recently, shrinking by 100 million metric tons in the past decade so that it no longer features in the global top 10.

That said, Hong Kong enjoys advantages such as its geographical location, business environment, the “one country, two systems” framework and being part of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). It simply needs to undertake its own reform and industry transformation, so as to regain and strengthen its status as an international shipping hub and reverse  its falling container throughput and port usage fee revenues.

Second, Hong Kong should make strenuous efforts to attract high-end talent from around the world by advancing a unified tech talent education system reform. The resolution states clearly that the central authorities “support Hong Kong and Macao in building themselves into international hubs for high-caliber talent”, and the nation must deepen its strategy of revitalizing through science and education, empowering the nation with more talent, innovation-driven development and planned advancement of the nation’s education and talent management system reform.

The HKSAR government set up a talent service office to provide assistance to external talent intending to come to Hong Kong, as well as those who have already arrived, with policy support on such details as living conditions, jobs, and children’s education, so as to help them establish a long-term career in the city.

Hong Kong’s competitiveness in attracting talent rests not just in numbers and quality ratings but also in high standards of related policies, management and services.

The HKSAR government should cooperate with private talent agencies and consultation services in making Hong Kong an international talent gathering high ground sooner rather than later through increasingly open policies and an optimized working mechanism in attracting, nurturing and efficiently employing talent in accordance with the law of international talent flows.

Third, there is a need to deepen cooperation in the GBA, strengthen the alignment of rules and mechanisms, promote the transformation of Hong Kong’s economy, and cultivate new productivity.

The resolution clearly states that the GBA cities should better play their roles as engines of high-quality development. The HKSAR government should take a more proactive approach to deepening cooperation among the four major cooperation platforms of Hengqin in Zhuhai, Qianhai in Shenzhen, Nansha in Guangzhou, and the Lok Ma Chau Loop in Hong Kong, promoting the free and convenient flow of talent, capital, and technological elements, and helping to advance GBA cooperation.

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Hong Kong could learn from the Qianhai cooperation zone model to build a pilot platform for the Northern Metropolis of the New Territories, and explore institutional innovation. For example, establishing a statutory organization, the Northern Metropolis Authority, and employing qualified mainland professionals for some positions, to strengthen the alignment of rules and mechanisms with Qianhai and the Lok Ma Chau Loop. The HKSAR government could also consider allowing Shenzhen professionals to commute across the border to the Northern Metropolis and Shenzhen every day using a permit. The timely introduction of similar flexible management measures will help expand mutual exchanges and promote the complementary development of Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

The Northern Metropolis is a good platform for Hong Kong’s further deepening of reform, and development must be driven by a reformist mindset. The Northern Metropolis will bring the greatest increment to Hong Kong’s economic development, expand the space for innovation and technology, accelerate the development of new productive forces, deepen cooperation in the GBA, implement policy innovation, and promote economic transformation.

Fourth, it is essential to improve the mechanism for the HKSAR to play a better role in China’s opening-up to the outside world, and enhance the coordination of various opening-up policies. The resolution emphasizes: “Opening-up is a defining feature of Chinese modernization. We must remain committed to the basic State policy of opening to the outside world and continue to promote reform through opening-up. (By) leveraging the strengths of China’s enormous market, we will enhance our capacity for opening-up while expanding international cooperation and develop new institutions for a higher-standard open economy.”

The author is a board member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong & Macao Studies.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.