Hong Kong cosies up to Shenzhen in border swamp to lure startups

Hong Kong

IT'S the story of an obscure fishing community that was afforded special trading status and grew to become one of the world's most vibrant economic centres.

Then came competition. Just upriver, an even more obscure fishing community was afforded special trading status and soon grew to become one of the world's most vibrant economic centres.

The first was Hong Kong, which rose rapidly after being made a free port in the mid-19th Century, becoming a model for free-market capitalism by the time of its return to China 20 years ago. In the past two decades, it has watched the dazzling rise of Shenzhen, just across the Sham Chun River.

Now, officials in Hong Kong have an ambitious proposal to link the two via a technology park on a disputed swamp by the border that aims to revitalise Hong Kong's sagging …