Paradoxes of Hong Kong
By Dr Eamonn Butler Permalink 8 September 2005 Development
Friends had told me that Hong Kong has less on an international air than it used to. They were right; this place is getting more Chinese. It's been done largely through language rules on official positions. But everyone says the expats are steadily leaving and not being replaced. Meanwhile about 150 people a day immigrate from China. So everything is changing.
But it's a short-sighted policy, I am sure. Hong Kong has made its reputation as a meeting place of different cultures. Singapore by contrast makes its diversity an active statement of policy. Hong Kong will lose the electricity that is generated by different ideas and cultures coming together.
There is little overt regulation of business, but despite this, HK is by no means a free-market paradise. Many sectors of the economy are controlled, it seems, through a few oligopolists, particularly the property sector, which is so important here. (I remember many years ago being told that the Royal Bank of Scotland building in Hong Kong was worth more than the rest of the Bank put together. It's that sort of a place.) But of course development land is only made available in big tranches, so that only a few developers can afford to tackle it.
Likewise, the Jockey Club is huge. It's not the genteel group we have in the UK. It's a huge gambling monopoly. It fundamentally runs its own welfare system, which is one reason why taxes can be kept so low.
Health is particularly non-free-market. The hospital sector is 90% government, but primary care is nominally free. In fact, of course, that's how all the doctors make their money, because it isn't. It's hugely regulated (and many of the ruling folk in Hong Kong are doctors, so you know what that means), and doctors from abroad are not welcome, which reduces competition, and so on.
Nor is the rule of law by any means complete. People say that it's a fairly relaxed place until you annoy someone with power, and then you find your business has no electricity and you're done for.
Still, despite all this, most business sectors are left pretty much alone to get on with the job of making profits. Which is maybe why it looks like a free-market paradise, even though in important ways it isn't. It's remarkable how resilient the market is. As China unleashes more and more market activity, it doesn't know what's going to hit it.
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