That's right, tooth and nail, tooth and nail. There's a story today on the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation's awarding of contracts for the Southern Link between its East and West rails. As the article in the Standard says, projects this big (combined worth of HK$3.1 billion) only come around every two or three years. About HK$1 billion worth of contracts were awarded to the local arm of China State Construction, while the other HK$2 billion went to a consortium comprising Leighton, Balfour Beatty (Gammon), Kumagai and John Holland.

Now what you have to realize is, prior to the Handover, Hong Kong did have more huge infrastructure projects. There had been a cozy relationship between the Public Works section of the government and the biggest Western contractors in Hong Kong, such as Gammon, Leighton, Dragages, etc. During this time, it had never been easy for local Chinese firms, let alone mainland ones, to get a shot at the really plum projects, particularly since the Western ones were the ones with the track records to back themselves. A vicious, or virtuous circle, depending on where your money came from. This state of affairs ended in the huge orgy of public works construction with the Chek Lap Kok airport and related infrastructure.

After that were some lean years. As expected, the government has demonstrated greater willingness since colonial times to entertain tenders from local Chinese and mainland companies. However, due to the incredible track records of the Western firms, they remain competitive in this new environment, but it seems they have to band together to survive.

How interesting and significant that they seem to have fought a rearguard action here, securing the southern section of the KCRC project, while China State Construction got the northern ones?