SHENZHEN'S CHANGE, INTEGRATION WITH HK
Leung said it was the attitude and courage among these Shenzhen 's officials and specialists that had bolstered the city's quick rise.
"Many Hong Kongers, including manufacturers, traders and professionals, had the feeling that the most important reason behind Shenzhen's reform and development was the courage to ask, to think, to learn and to act," he said.
Within Leung's eight years of lecturing in Shenzhen, he saw notable progress made by the city. In the first several years, Shenzhen learnt from Hong Kong's past experience and lessons, but a few years later, some policies and planning in Shenzhen could be used for reference by Hong Kong.
Shenzhen's fast rise was just unthinkable, said Leung. If someone could make a five-minute slide show focusing on Shenzhen's changes in the last 30 years, it should be an exciting and aspiring piece.
Leung recalled that in early 1980s when he and several other Hong Kong professionals were asked by Shenzhen to assist city planning, the first major issue they encountered was the target population of Shenzhen.
How many people would Shenzhen, which then had a population of some 20,000, need to support a mature special economic zone?
Shenzhen's officials had put the target population at 300,000.
"We found it impossible since Shenzhen then was nothing but several fishing villages. How could we have 300,000 people? We doubted it a bit, but we finally made the planning based on this target population," Leung said.
Now Shenzhen has a total population of 14 million. In 2009, Shenzhen's GDP amounted to 824 billion yuan (121 billion U.S. dollars), nearly 60 percent of that of Hong Kong.
In such sectors as port trade and manufacturing, Shenzhen now represents a strong competitor against Hong Kong.
In Leung's viewpoints, Hong Kong and Shenzhen can learn from each other for a better future, and cooperation between them outweighs significantly over competition.
An economic integration between the two neighboring cities was eventually inevitable, and would be beneficial to both residents and businesses in the two cities, he added.
