Two recent events may offer Hong Kong residents some food for thought by relating as well as comparing the two.

The first event is Xi Jinping's first inspection tour outside Beijing after taking office as CPC general secretary. His choice of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region as the first stop of the trip has prompted many commentators to recall the late State leader Deng Xiaoping's inspection tour of southern China in 1992 and conclude that Xi's visit to this part of the country demonstrates the new central leaders' determination to go on with the reform and opening.

The other event saw HK Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying give a speech, titled "Hong Kong's Next Five Years", which focused on "domestic relations" between Hong Kong and the mainland with the emphasis on stepping up exchanges with provinces and municipalities on the mainland for mutual benefit and win-win results.

How are these two events related, one may ask? The link between them lies in that, as top leaders of the central and HKSAR governments respectively, both Xi and Leung were declaring the directions of policies they will be implementing in the near future. The former was talking about the country while the latter was looking at a special administrative region of the country.

The future is ahead of us. A leader's quality is best demonstrated by how he keeps the development heading in the right direction and leads society toward the desired goal. Five years is not exactly a long time, but it is a chief executive's term in office. Leung is devoting his term in office mainly to enhancing "domestic relations" and he showed his vision of Hong Kong's future in the speech.

With the global economy full of uncertainties, it is especially difficult for a small region to stay afloat on its own. As such, it is imperative to find strength in cross-regional distribution of labor and cooperation and take part in international competition with pooled resources and collective strength in order to emerge victorious with relative ease and assuredness.

Guangdong-Hong Kong cooperation, with the economic integration of the PRD region as its main theme, is the most important part of Hong Kong's "domestic relations" focus. It is quite interesting that Qianhai, Hengqin and Nansha, which Xi Jinping visited during his trip to Shenzhen, are all State-designated development zones and new platforms for Guangdong-Hong Kong cooperation. This may very well be a clear signal that, when Xi said reform and opening must involve breaking new grounds, he meant some systems and practices in Hong Kong and Macao will be an important strategic direction of the nation's reform and opening up in the coming years.

China is now a locomotive pulling the world economy forward. The mainland needs to further open up to the outside world while Hong Kong needs to expand its cooperation with the mainland. This not only responds to the nation's development strategy, but paints Hong Kong's future as well. This is why Leung Chun-ying emphasizes "domestic relations".

The author is a veteran current affairs commentator.

(HK Edition 12/11/2012 page3)