ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to examine the changing roles and importance of Hong Kong manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) since the British handover of sovereignty back to China in 1997. The decline of labour-intensive low value-added manufacturing owned by Hong Kong’s small and medium-sized enterprises has been part of the wider economic restructuring of the PRD economy since the late 1990s (and a continuation of economic restructuring in Asia since the 1960s). It is the end of a chapter for labour-intensive, low value-added Hong Kong manufacturers but not the end of manufacturing in the PRD. There are signs of the rise of knowledge-intensive, higher value-added domestic manufacturing owned by mainland Chinese in the PRD. Given the underinvestment in research and development, the lack of complementary supply chains, and the limited supply of scientists and engineers in advanced manufacturing, the author calls for more pro-active supportive industrial and education policies to give Hong Kong manufacturers a chance to compete in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
