DAB To Push For 'Hong Kong Villages' Across Border

DAB delegates to national political bodies said on Friday that they'll be pushing their idea for Hong Kong-style villages in Guangdong when they attend NPC and CPPCC meetings next month.

The largest pro-Beijing party in Hong Kong said it thinks people who struggle to afford a home in the SAR will welcome the chance to live elsewhere in the Greater Bay Area.

Party chairwoman Starry Lee, who's a member of the CPPCC, said deputies to the advisory body and the National People's Congress will be presenting 24 recommendations during the two sessions up in the capital, many of them related to the bay area.

A major one is the idea for special residential estates on the mainland to be earmarked for people currently in the SAR, with Hong Kong-style recreational and community facilities.

Lee said this will enable people who are struggling to find affordable housing in Hong Kong to get something a lot more spacious in places like Zhongshan, Zhuhai or Huizhou.

She said they have already raised the idea with mainland officials, but the proposals are still in their infancy.

The DAB also said it thinks medical talent from Hong Kong can help establish hospitals in the bay area, brushing off concerns that this could lead to a brain drain from the SAR.

Lee said the party is also hoping to persuade Beijing to let Hong Kong people pay lower rates of tax than normal over the border.

The party's other ideas include issuing mainland ID cards for Hongkongers in the bay area, and for mainland budget tour groups to the SAR to be regulated.