JANUARY 24 — Singapore and Hong Kong are often compared with each other since both hold an important place as major trading ports in Asia.

In addition, the two cities share many things in common ranging from their efficient transport system to their historical background as former British colonies.

Although superficial, the two cities are often portrayed as sisters, twins or cousins.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong and Singapore both have to face a growing neighbouring city. While Singapore faces the Malaysian city of Johor Bahru, Hong Kong faces the Mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen.

It is also fair to say that both Shenzhen and Johor Bahru have found inspiration in each other’s way of competing with their respective neighbour.

Whether we talk about the South Johor Economic Region (SJER) and Iskandar Development Region (IDR) in Malaysia or the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and Pearl River Delta (PRD) in Mainland China, both have seen the necessity to compete with their neighbouring giant by creating urban and regional economic hubs.

In other words, Shenzhen is to Hong Kong what Johor is to Singapore and vice-versa. But for how long?

Once a fishing village, Shenzhen has now a population of over 11 million compared to Hong Kong’s 7 million. Meanwhile, its territory is almost two times the size of Hong Kong’s with around 2,000 square kilometres.

China’s economic boom has made this vibrant city probably the country’s most privileged given that it benefits from the development of both the Mainland and Hong Kong, making Shenzhen a first tier city.

In addition, Shenzhen has been a financial giant since 1991 as the only city in Mainland China to hold a stock exchange alongside Shanghai.

In 2017 alone, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong stock connect made foreign investments in Shenzhen exceed those of Mainland trades in Hong Kong shares.

Data from the Hong Kong stock exchange reported that the volume of shares traded by Hong Kong based investors equalled to 875 billion yuan (RM519.1 billion) with a net capital inflow of  148.5 billion yuan.

At the same time, the trade of Hong Kong shares by Mainland investors was at HK$ 475.9 billion.

The booming metropolis has also shifted from being an industrial city to an innovation hub, often being labelled as China’s new Silicon Valley.

Surely, Shenzhen’s growing development has impacted Hong Kong’s privileged position as more foreign companies and investors decided to shift their eyes north of Hong Kong.

Last year, Hong Kong’s global innovation rankings dropped to 16th while Singapore was seventh.

A survey conducted by the University of Hong Kong found that Hong Kong scored lower than Shenzhen when it comes to technology with some comments mocking Hong Kong’s last innovation as being the Octopus card, the city’s cashcard which is also facing competition from Chinese giants WeChat Pay and Alipay.

Whether we talk about innovation, environment or lifestyle, Shenzhen is gaining more similarities with Singapore, putting Hong Kong far behind.

In 2014, Shenzhen won international recognition by getting the C40 City Climate Leadership Awards, making it one of China’s greenest cities. In fact, Shenzhen’s urban planning has strong similarities with that of Singapore, where nature and urbanisation cohabit.

Architecture is also another element of similarity that Shenzhen has recently gained with Singapore, with numerous architectural landmarks being built in the city’s business districts, the 599 metres Ping An International Finance Centre being an example, as the world’s fourth tallest building.

Another significant example of Shenzhen’s growing importance is the tennis WTA’s final tournament planned move from Singapore to Shenzhen in 2019. While Hong Kong would previously have been chosen over Shenzhen for such international events, the southern Mainland Chinese city has overtaken “Asia’s World City”.

In recent years, more Singaporean companies have been seduced by the opportunities Shenzhen can offer, in particular Singaporean hardware startups.

Singapore and Shenzhen’s relationship has also been reflected by additional flights between the two cities. In addition to daily flights offered by Silkair and Shenzhen Airlines — last October — low-cost carrier Scoot added a service that runs five times a week.

Shenzhen and Singapore will certainly have more to learn from each other in the future.

Although Hong Kong’s free market and judicial system is needed to Singapore, its innovation and growing urban resemblance to the Garden City puts Hong Kong on the side.

It is time for Hong Kong to boost its innovation capabilities or else it may become Singapore’s retarded cousin.

It is a question of time before Shenzhen and Singapore further embrace one another.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.