Hong Kong is a special place for me.
First of all, it’s where my beloved mom has emigrated to decades ago and is now a resident. Next, it’s a short distance very convenient plane ride away from the Philippines (yes I have to admit, plane rides give me ‘flight anxiety’, so I travel infrequently).
Besides, Hong Kong’s a dandy, spunky, fast paced modern lifestyle, emblematic of the prosperity from capitalism. Of course, one can’t miss out the exquisite array of delicacies which also serves as a haven for gastronomes (5 among the world’s best 100 restaurants are in Hong Kong).
Importantly, Hong Kong has been a beacon of economic freedom having earned the title as the freest economy for 15 consecutive years (a title she might be relinquishing soon).
However, I was distressed to learn that with the introduction of minimum wage Hong Kong appears to be in a slippery slope towards a welfare state as this Economist article has revealed.
One paragraph from the lengthy article struck me,
``Underlying them is a shift in officialdom’s view of the economy. In 2008 Mr Tsang announced that he had succeeded in having Hong Kong included within China’s five-year plans. Last year he said that in light of the global financial crisis, “we have to revisit the government’s role in promoting economic development” and special efforts would be made to encourage the growth of six industries.”
My interpretation of this is that China could be in a path towards policy convergence with that of Hong Kong, which means an eventual closure to the One Country, Two Systems platform.
It is unclear what motivates or what prods mainland China’s authorities for this, but one of the factors I’d suspect is the illegal immigration issue.
The other factor could be politics--Chinese official may want to get the heat off internal policy failures by aligning Hong Kong’s economic performance with that of the mainland. Of course this means taking away part of the success formula. There must be more (perhaps gradualism towards an alignment of the currency system?), but ideas elude me for this moment.
Nevertheless, this is one important development to keep vigil on.
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