Island a test for domestic consumption
Print Edition
A GIANT 63-meter blue whale shark statue towers over the world’s largest aquarium on a Chinese island being promoted as a testing ground for reforms aimed at encouraging domestic consumption as the driver of economic growth.
Hengqin Island is just across the Pearl River from Shenzhen, the boom town on the border with Hong Kong that was designated a special economic zone 35 years ago.
At the time Shenzhen was a fishing village. Now foreign investment and a freer economy have turned it into an export powerhouse with a population of more than 10 million and miles of high-rise buildings.
But in the face of a long-term slowdown in growth, China is looking to refocus its economy to one where expansion is driven by domestic consumption rather than infrastructure investment and overseas trade.
Hengqin is being developed as a test bed for a new kind of reform. Now largely fields and scrubland, the island is intended as a hub for education, creative industries and tourism, with theme parks, hotels and restaurants tapping the swelling wallets of China’s new middle class.
The aquarium at the US$5 billion Chimelong Ocean Kingdom holds a stupendous 49 million liters of water — certified as the world’s largest by Guinness World Records when it opened in March — held back by a cinema-screen-sized window bathing spectators in blue light.
A rainbow of sea creatures from tiny yellow croakers, blue sailfish and lumbering sharks drifted past.
“It’s huge,” 11 year-old Wu Junfeng exclaimed, as his mother looked on, clutching their 300 yuan (US$49) tickets. “There are fish and turtles!”
Local officials offering a raft of tax breaks say they have attracted 250 billion yuan in investment since the project was launched in 2008.
“We have even more special policies than the special economic zones” such as Shenzhen, Hengqin government chief Niu Jing said. “Hengqin’s position is unique, with clear advantages, being a neighbor of Macau and Hong Kong.”
Hong Kong is one of Asia’s key financial hubs, while Macau, just a few minutes’ drive down the coast from Hengqin, is the world’s most lucrative gambling center. It attracts millions of visitors from China’s mainland, where casinos are banned, and has annual receipts seven times higher than Las Vegas.
The island has fewer than 10,000 permanent residents and the wide highway to the aquarium passes dozens of half-finished apartment blocks.
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