Question of the Week: What Makes Hong Kong Competitive?

In anticipation of the presentation by our guest speaker on Tuesday, Mike Rowse, the Hong Kong government's point man for investment promotion, I thought I would pose the following two (okay, three) questions:

• What are the core reasons for Hong Kong's global competitiveness? (Remember the World Economic Forum ranking that I put on the screen in class - It might be interesting to look at the sub-rankings to determine exactly what Hong Kong's strengths and weaknesses are, according to the study. What exactly do we mean when we say an economy is "competitive"?)
• What are the key threats to the SAR's competitiveness? (In other words, what could topple the apple cart?) And should we be concerned?
  

I mentioned before this article on Hong Kong by Columbia University Professor Saskia Sassen, which appeared in Newsweek magazine last year. She makes some interesting points which I am sure will be echoed by Mike Rowse on Tuesday. Check it out.

What do you think?

Reactions, comments and more questions are welcome! Remember to include your name on any posting - or at least some way to let us know who you are!

(Mr Wong, who is handling the POLI0019 tutorials, may take up this discussion thread in the section meetings on Wednesday, 19 September.)