Lam on Charm Offensive in Davos

Can Carrie Lam persuade world leaders Hong Kong is open for business?

Hong Kong's fearless leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor is in Davos, Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum in the hopes of persuading leading political and financial figures that our city is still open for business.

Her visit coincides with a report by Moody's Investors Service that has downgraded Hong Kong's rating by one notch to Aa3 from Aa2. In September, Fitch Ratings cut Hong Kong's sovereign rating  to AA from AA+.

"Team HK" is in Davos for the World Economic Forum

Moody's says the downgrading is due to concerns the government has not been able to quell the political and economic issues from eight months of protests.

"The downgrade principally reflects Moody's view that Hong Kong's institutions and governance strength is lower than previously estimated," said Marie Diron, managing director of Moody's sovereign risk group, and Martin Petch, vice-president and senior credit officer of sovereign risk group, said in a statement on Monday night.

"The absence of tangible plans to address either the political or economic and social concerns of the Hong Kong population that have come to the fore in the past nine months may reflect weaker inherent institutional capacity than Moody's had previously assessed," the New York-based credit rating agency said.

Protests are still happening, one of the latest in Landmark

It described the government's response to demands for greater political freedoms and expensive living costs as "notably slow, tentative and inconclusive".

"It may also point to more significant constraints on the autonomy of Hong Kong's institutions than previously thought," the agency added, hinting pressure from Beijing.

This is a pretty big strike against Lam and her administration, who are bringing "Team HK", including the trade secretary, top officials from the stock exchange, airport authority, MTR Corp and the head of Swire Group to the Swiss mountain resort.

But perhaps a more eminent threat is the Wuhan pneumonia that is spreading quickly (or we just haven't been told the truth about it all along), and it is only a matter of time before the first confirmed cases are in Hong Kong.

The corona virus in Wuhan is spreading very quickly

If Hong Kong does experience another SARS outbreak, that will be a double blow to the city's economy that has already been battered by the protests.

News of the pneumonia-like virus spreading resulted in Asian stocks taking a battering, and Hong Kong more so with the downgrade from Moody's.

How is Lam going to convince world leaders that she can lead the city out of these crises? She hasn't demonstrated any kind of leadership in the past eight months...

Wuhan Pneumonia Cases Jump

It is believed the Wuhan coronavirus started in this market in Wuhan

The Wuhan coronavirus just jumped exponentially today with the announcement of three people who have died from the pneumonia-like virus, and reports over 130 new cases this past weekend bringing the total to 198 in the Chinese city in Hubei province.

Xi calls on officials to stop the spread of the virus

It is believed the source is from a seafood and animal meat market in Wuhan.  So far the entire country has reported 218 cases.

Today President Xi Jinping has ordered officials to "resolutely contain" the spread of Wuhan pneumonia, and that "the safety of people's lives and health should be given top priority".

 Errr... how come it took Xi this long to say that when the mystery virus was first reported on December 30, and now hundreds of millions of people are traveling on public transport to their hometowns for Spring Festival?

In addition, many Chinese people's knowledge about personal hygiene let alone food hygiene is not up to par with international standards, making it very difficult to try to stop and isolate the cases as quickly as possible since it is now believed many cases were from human-to-human transmission.

Health workers in hazmat suits treating a patient in Wuhan

The virus has also apparently spread to other countries with cases reported in South Korea, Thailand and Japan. Meanwhile Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Nepal and Taiwan are monitoring suspected cases.

According to the Secretary for Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee said today there are 106 people in isolation in Hong Kong with suspected symptoms.

And how is the city trying to stop and isolate the number of cases of possible Wuhan pneumonia?

The Department of Health has announced it will require mainland Chinese travelers from Wuhan to make a health declaration starting from midnight tonight. But strangely, Chan says mainland train passengers will not be asked to make health declarations at the West Kowloon train terminus.

Why does Chan (middle) not implement stronger measures?

Why the discrepancy? Shouldn't all travelers from China be screened? A person from Wuhan may not even know or think they have symptoms of the Wuhan virus. Or even if they do, would they declare it?

This is really pathetic handling by the Hong Kong government on this fast-emerging health issue. Did the authorities not learn from SARS in 2003? This is a matter of life and death, not about appeasing senior Chinese officials by being less lenient on mainlanders coming to the city...