|
 |
 |
HONG KONG -- Can Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse save Hong Kong?
A majority of people here seem to think so, according to opinion polls.
From office workers and capitalist entrepreneurs to communist cadre, Hong
Kong residents are counting on the American politically conservative
animated rodent to pull them out of of a fiscal rut that is only now
leveling out slightly after the Asian Economic crisis of 1997.
After months of speculation, it was officially confirmed in November
that the Hong Kong government and Walt Disney Co. will construct a
Disneyland on Lantao island, just around the corner from Chek Lap Kok
airport. The city's $3.3 billion investment in the project is far more than
Mickey's $320 million and has raised complaints that the government
should not be putting its funds
into a speculative venture.
The enormously-successful Tokyo Disneyland, by contrast, is a purely
non-government deal. That enterprise, by the way, attracts about 15
million visitors a years, about the same as another "theme park," Yokohama
Chinatown.
One financial analyst estimates the five-year Disneyland construction
project will add 0.4 percent to Hong Kong's gross domestic product yearly
and 0.5 percent each year after the grand opening. No doubt visitors from
the mainland will contribute.
Business here has not been good since the British Crown Colony became a
Special Administrative Region of China.
"Outsiders started comparing Hong Kong with Singapore and Shanghai
which is sheer poppycock,"
said Percy Liu, locally-born computer executive who returned to Hong Kong
after earning an MBA at UCLA. "In terms of business sophistication, those
places hardly compare. Taipei is a more worthy competitor."
A local magazine found that even with the benefits of Disneyland, Hong
Kong comes up short in the future. Sewage disposal problems, air
pollution, traffic congestion and lack of public or government will to do
something about these problems bodes ill.
In his October policy address, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa outlined
his vision for Hong Kong to become a "world class city."
William Barrow, head of Hong Kong University's urban planning center,
said Hong Kong is the world's leading first-class city to be moving
backwards in terms of living standards. "No other high-income location in
the world is moving toward becoming a third-world environment."
A visiting American foundation president praised Hong Kong's economic
freedom while chiding officials for intervention such as using tax
dollars for Disneyland.
Edwin Feulner, president of The Heritage Foundation conservative
Washington DC think tank was in town to present--jointly with The Wall
Street Journal--a first place award to Hong Kong for topping the annual
Index of Economic Freedom. The report grades countries on a range of
criteria from trade and tax policies to government regulation.
Feulner was guest of honor at a breakfast sponsored by Chief Secretary
Anson Chan at her Peak residence, which has a stunning view of the harbor.
Also invited were government officials including Hong Kong financial
secretary Donald Tsang, Heritage representatives and Wall Street Journal
representatives.( In the interests of journalistic transparency, I should
mention here that I attended the breakfast and I am a Senior Fellow in The
Heritage Foundation, Asian Studies Center, independent of my
column-writing activities.)
Feulner said that coming on the heels of Hong Kong's stock market
intervention, the Disneyland investment by the government constituted
"intervention" of another kind.
The astute Tsang defended Hong Kong and repeated the charge he has made
in public that Singapore's government traditionally intervenes with large
holdings in the market. Second-place Singapore's score also was weakened
by what was described as "bracket creep" resulting in tax increases.
The Heritage Foundation itself was criticized in one press account for
foisting American economic behavior standards on the rest of the world
through the annual index. That charge needs no defense.
The index gives some useful benchmarks through a popularized intellectual
exercise by which countries can gauge their performance against that of
other nations.
Edward Neilan (eneilan@crisscross.com) is a veteran journalist, based in Tokyo, who covers East Asia and writes weekly for World Tribune.com.