Dragging HK to "Belt and Road"

One Belt, One Road is Xi Jinping's plan to create trade links with 65 countries

Yesterday Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying delivered his last policy address and a good chunk of the two-hour speech was devoted to the "One Belt, One Road" trade strategy that was initiated by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Leung, who has abbreviated it to "Belt and Road", mentioned these two words an unprecedented 48 times. It was much more than "education" (31), "innovation" (30), "sustainable" (12) and "recycling" (0).

What is this "Belt and Road" you ask?

Xi presented this initiative in 2013 and was highlighted in the 13th five-year plan last year. The proposal is to develop two trade routes -- the New Silk Road linking China with Europe, and the Maritime Silk Road linking China with Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.

Leung wants Hong Kong to take join One Belt, One Road

As a result it will span 65 countries, including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

With links so expansive, Leung thinks Hong Kong should get in on the game. Or rather because he hopes to be re-elected next year, he wants to be in Xi's good books.

As a result, Leung is establishing a "Belt and Road" office with a committee of which he will be chairman in order to determine strategies on how Hong Kong can take advantage of these new trade links.

He has allocated HK$200 million for the professional service sector to build ties and cooperation with One Belt, One Road countries, and there will be tax incentives for those companies that set up treasury units in Hong Kong.

Not only are Leung's plans business-oriented, but education-related too. He wants students from these countries to come to Hong Kong to study, while educating local students about One Belt, One Road through study and cultural exchanges.

Is this the best Leung and his team can think of in terms of taking advantage of the One Belt, One Road strategy?

There are already stories from entrepreneurs trying to break into central Asia and having a lot of trouble doing business there.

Tom Lee, a product engineer for an electronics company, travelled to Kazakhstan in 2014 in a trip organized by the Trade Development Council. He was hoping to explore opportunities there and reached a US$30,000 deal with a local company, only to find it failed to pay up.

"Its business model is hard for Hong Kong companies to understand, and the customs system is extremely complicated," he said. Language is also a barrier. As a result Lee said his company was more focused on traditional markets like Europe and North America.

So how will Leung be able to help companies overcome these hurdles? And the committee is going to spend how many months and how much money to figure this out?

And educationally, what can students get out of this strategy? What is there for them in central Asia and Southeast Asia? Does Leung mean universities here will start providing courses on learning these languages or will there be lessons on Islam?

One parent commented, "I don't understand why the government is so generous to others but not willing to change the quality of our own education."

Point taken.

In the end it all sounds really vague, and one wonders how much he can really achieve on this initiative in one year.

Even more ironic is that people in Hong Kong aren't enthusiastic about this project, and yet Leung insists on dragging us into this plan.

While it makes sense for Hong Kong to try to find some way to benefit from these potentially big trade links, who's got an appetite for some adventure?

As Hong Kong goes through rocky economic times, most people are too scared of risking too much and would rather be close to home and bet on a sure thing.

Leung just might be biting off much more than he can chew.

A Tale of Two Leaders

Leung Chun-ying's speech was read out like a laundry list for two hours...

This morning our time, the President of the United States, Barack Obama gave his last State of the Union address. While he noted the differences between the Democrats and the Republicans is more divisive than ever, he also praised the country for its diversity, and how the rest of the world looks to America for leadership.

He also talked about the country's future: how to ensure equal opportunities for everyone, how to harness technological change, how to keep the country safe, and how to bridge the political divide.

...while Barack Obama talked big ideas in his speech

This is Obama's vision for the country in his last year in office, and the way he spoke instilled pride and inspiration in the audience.

Contrast this to Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's policy address this morning, his last one before the election next year.

He spoke at the Legislative Council for two hours -- even taking a 10-minute break in between --  to read out a laundry list of initiatives his administration has done or will do, from free kindergarten for some families (details to be ironed out), give HK$2 billion to startups, double the number of wifi hotspots to 34,000 in three years, make the city more accessible for the elderly, and free admission to permanent exhibitions in museums.

Whoohoo.

More interesting were the four times Leung was interrupted by lawmakers who complained the chief executive was not fulfilling election promises, how the government would destroy the environment when developing Lantau, and demanding to know where missing bookseller Lee Bo and his four associates are.

Leung's speech hardly contained any vision. While he is concerned about the growing aging population, with nearly one-third of the population will be seniors within 20 years, Leung only proposes making public areas more accessible and extra hospital beds for them.

Lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan demands to know where Lee Bo is

Why not look far into the future and propose more preventive health measures, like encouraging seniors to exercise more, give them more money so they can eat better, and build more assisted living facilities.

And for kindergartens, it is only free for those who attend half day, and even then, the scheme looks to be more complicated with various conditions. As a result some families will be shut out. If 70 to 80 percent of kindergartens are supposed to be free under this scheme, why not just make all of them free of charge?

While throwing HK$2 billion to startups is generous, will that actually lead to something Hong Kong will be famous for globally? What startups have been successful here so far? Seems like a long shot bet that may not result in much except for an easy grab for startups desperate for funds. Is this the most effective way to spend our taxpayer dollars?

Perhaps the only bold initiative on Leung's part is banning the ivory trade "as quickly as possible" he said in the press conference afterwards. Again details need to be worked out, but at least the government is taking a strong stand on this issue.

Other than that, as Leung's critics have pointed out -- including Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee -- the speech only talked about piecemeal items that don't show any sign of looking at Hong Kong's long term future. There are no big ideas, only small initiatives to try to win quick points.

We don't want a government that only picks the low-hanging fruit. We want a vision of the city's future. And today was far from inspiring...

Octopus Still Leads the Pack

Commuter uses the Compass card to "tap in" on the bus in Greater Vancouver

When I was in Vancouver over the holidays, I saw commuters on public transit using Compass cards to "tap in" on buses and the Sky Train.

It has been years in the making for Translink, the public transit system for Metro Vancouver to finally switch from paper monthly passes to plastic ones, similar to Octopus cards in Hong Kong, that have been in use since 1997.

The MTR's Octopus cards have been around since 1997

The deadline to completely move to Compass cards was January 1, and so tens of thousands of people were not only purchasing the cards but also trying to add money on them in order to use them.

However, unlike Octopus cards where you can add cash and the value is immediately transferred to the card, it takes commuters in Vancouver two hours for this transaction to be processed on Compass cards by paying with cash, debit or credit.

And because of the exceptionally high volume of new users in the first few days of 2016, it took much more than two hours for people's Compass cards to load up with money before they could actually use it, resulting in a lot of frustration.

Can you imagine if that situation happened in Hong Kong?

People here wouldn't even stand having to wait two hours before being able to use their Octopus cards. They are already at the end of their patience waiting in line to add money to their card.

There was a rush to buy Compass cards in Vancouver

It's an interesting contrast to find that Octopus cards pretty much still reign supreme when it comes to public transit. And with a on-time performance rating of over 99 percent, how can anyone complain about practically one of the world's most efficient transit systems in the world?

Vancouver's got some catching up to do. Two hours to add value to a card? Not an efficient step in the right direction...

Justice Secretary Promises Investigation

Thousands came out to protest Lee Bo and his associates' disappearance

How many days has it been since bookseller Lee Bo has disappeared and finally Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung says something.

During a speech at City Hall before judges and lawyers to mark the start of the new legal year, Yuen said the public's concern about Lee and his four associates' disappearance was "understandable" and promised a thorough investigation.

"Except properly permitted under our laws, neither unauthorized criminal investigations nor unlawful arrests within the jurisdiction by anyone or any authority shall be tolerated," he said.

"Any suspected case of infringement deserves full and thorough investigation, and this is what the government is seeking to achieve," he added, saying concerns in the community were "understandable" and should be properly addressed.

Will Rimsky Yuen find the answers we are looking for?

Surely Yuen can pick up the phone and call Beijing to demand some answers? So far it's the media and public that are driving this story, not the government, which seems to have a passive reaction to what Hong Kong people think is a shocking erosion of rights in the city.

And as the Secretary for Justice, one would think Yuen should be just as concerned as us, and would be leading the charge, trying to find out answers for the rest of us?

Or perhaps he does know, but is not at liberty to say?

It's maddening how the Leung administration has a delayed response to every incident -- it's as if the senior officials are waiting for instructions from above before they decide on their own game plan.

One would think after the Occupy protests, lead in the water issue, housing, depressed salaries and so on, that the government would try to work harder to earn the public's trust.

Time is off the essence here. We need to know where Lee and his associates are. Now.