CENTRAL: Hong Kong now has HK$1.1 trillion in reserves, and another HK$3.6 trillion in the Exchange Fund. For any city in the world indeed for most sovereign states these would be outstanding figures.
And yet for a city that prides itself on a mix of financial acumen and professional civil service, the best that Financial Secretary Paul Chan and his team of assistants, advisors and under-secretaries could muster for the coming year’s budget has, in short, been yet another round of small change policies. How very predictable this has all become.
Even in the two areas Chan identified as critical to the future economy, in start-up tech businesses and continuing education, public investment will in effect amount to a one-off HK$2,000 grant for poor students and yet another round of investment in the white elephants that are our science and technology parks.
For those impressed by the incubation programmes offered by Cyberport, it is worth considering this: Cyberport was built, promoted and supposedly a “technology hub” at least five years before tech companies began to cluster around London’s Silicon Roundabout or Berlin’s Silicon Allee. Even nationally, Beijing and Shanghai have long overtaken Hong Kong in this regard, and have successfully established genuine centres of technological excellence with a global reputation.
