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September 10, 2006

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Mini-mogul David Tang opened a cigar shop in a Macau casino, and neatly divined one of Hong Kong's major problems in the process, according to the SCMP:

"You can't have a vibrant and competitive economy without intense competition," he said. "Stanley Ho's a very good friend of mine ... but he's so rich he doesn't need to work for 10 more lives. Nobody needs to shed a tear for Mr Ho.

"We read about Hong Kong being the freest economy in the world but when was the last time a foreigner actually invested money in Hong Kong? Why? Because Hong Kong is controlled by five people."

Competition law, anyone?

 posted by Simon on 09.10.06 at 09:46 AM in the Hong Kong economy category.




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Comments:

hear, hear.

 posted by: Brandon on 09.10.06 at 10:02 AM [permalink]

I am sure the strains of pity music will not be heard by those five people.

Yes, needed to be said. But, no, never change.

posted by: doug on 09.10.06 at 11:05 AM [permalink]

I am a supporter of universal suffrage in Hong Kong.

But one wonders, when the machinery of democracy is put in place, will Hong Kong not simply just become one of the most corrupt cities in the world? Or might it be that, with the wealth so concentrated in this city, that the corruption would be far more efficiently allocated? (tongue firmly in cheek here)

I suspect that their wealth will allow for a fairly seamless transition to special interest democracy. But there will be more stakeholders that will need to be satisfied.

 posted by: HK Dave on 09.12.06 at 09:42 AM [permalink]

Isn't it ironical that they (Cato Institute & Fraser Institute) keep applauding Hong Kong as the freest economy in the world? They must be missing something big or they have ulterior motives!

 posted by: Alice on 09.12.06 at 12:14 PM [permalink]

Alice, clearly they do have ulterior motives. Didn't anyone pick up on that great lobbyist story written by Zach Coleman in last week's Asia Sentinel?

Here's a link:

http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=124&Itemid=31

 posted by: doug on 09.12.06 at 05:54 PM [permalink]




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