Search

This paper argues that Hong Kong is now at the crossroads of its journey towards social policy development. While economic development still seems to be the unwavering objective of the Hong Kong government, the demand for democracy and social development can no longer be ignored because of a strong civil society fostered by economic success. The current state of affairs provides a window of opportunity for the Hong Kong government to strengthen its legitimacy through the development of social policy and to promote social harmony through inclusivity in social welfare. The findings from the present empirical survey conducted by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies ( HKIAPS) in 2010 demonstrate that Hong Kong people identified social harmony as the main direction for social development, closely followed by economic development, and democracy and freedom. Respondents who chose social harmony as the main goal of social development were more likely to take a step back and find common ground when fighting for their own rights or the rights of society. This paper concludes that these findings reflect the crucial importance of taking social harmony into consideration in the social policy development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the role of Hong Kong in China's grand scheme to build up the RMB as a global reserve currency. We highlight the economic importance of Hong Kong to China in terms of channeling foreign direct investment into China, some of which, in the future, will be denominated in the RMB. We discuss the development of China's RMB currency swap and deposit markets in Hong Kong. These offshore markets enable the RMB to trade freely, setting the stage for the RMB to become fully convertible and allowing market forces to play a role in pricing the value of the RMB, and help in the development of the RMB-denominated bond (or dim sum bond) market in Hong Kong. Finally, we present evidence of the phenomenal growth of the dim sum bond market in Hong Kong, which can further enhance and strengthen the use of the RMB outside China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of inflation in China over the past few decades has been remarkable. This paper characterizes the statistical nature of the inflation series in China over the past quarter of a century and presents an interesting scenario of large decline in inflation pass-through accompanied with low inflation since the end of the 1990s. How should monetary policy in China be conducted under these new economic conditions? We propose a discrete inflation-targeting framework for monetary policy, which is likely to be suitable for the regime of low inflation and inflation pass-through. The advantages and caveats of adopting such a framework are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the research implications of the interface between urban economics and urban planning in Hong Kong, China. Benefits of industrial activities; Utilization of development control information to understand aspects of the industrial sector in economic development; Role of the planning authority in respect of land uses.

The growth in population and of the economy of Hong Kong has caused a significant increase in the demand for fresh water. To secure sufficient water supply and to reduce reliance on imported water from Dongjiang (East River) in Mainland China, the Hong Kong Special Administration Region (HKSAR) government has implemented a wide range of water conservation measures which include the use of seawater for toilet flushing, metering and a tiered water tariff, large-scale replacement and rehabilitation of ageing pipelines to reduce leakage, valve-type toilet flushing apparatus and education and publicity programmes. To ensure sustainable and safe water supply, the HKSAR government is actively exploring alternative water resources including the treated effluent from sewage treatment plant, desalination of seawater and the extension of water-gathering grounds in the territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Introduction sets the scene for the Symposium. It considers the governance value of civic engagement, along with civic engagement as identifiable modes of governance. Such matters are embraced in the subsequent analyses of significant developments and experience in South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Hong Kong and China. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Producers of speed-intensive goods, e.g. clothing or electronics, face markets that are in constant flux due to changing fashion or technology. Throughout the twentieth century, Chinese business networks have had a comparative advantage in producing speed-intensive goods due to their quick reaction time. This comparative advantage was of relatively little value prior to the Second World War, but since the war, international telephone and air services have made international trade in speed-intensive goods practical. This has caused the demand for speed-intensive goods on the international market to grow at an extremely rapid pace. This growth in demand can explain the post-Second World War economic booms experienced by Hong Kong, Taiwan and finally China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1970s and up until the financial crisis occurred in the late 1990s, Hong Kong prospered in a relatively stable social, economic and political context. Since the financial crisis, however, its population has been increasingly exposed to risk: there has been job uncertainty and decreasing capacity for self-reliance, leading to a growing reliance on public welfare and on families at a time when both are under pressure. The old welfare policies, unable to cope with the new risks, have been replaced by neo-liberal reforms, redistributing the roles and responsibilities of the individual and the state, with a greater burden falling on the former. Individuals are required to be prudent to manage risk. While these reforms have relieved some of the burden on the state, both new social risk groups and ‘net taxpayers’ considered themselves to have borne disproportional costs. Society is facing serious problems resulting from ineffective old welfare policies, new social risks due to new policies, and the political upheavals arising from increased social conflicts and weakened social cohesion and solidarity. A further complication is that there is no acceptable platform or agent to negotiate a compromise between the polarized groups. This article argues that reliance on publicly funded risk coping strategies or on neo-liberal risk prevention and mitigation strategies is not a desirable and sustainable policy. A commonly accepted political platform is required to negotiate a compromise which emphasizes shared and balanced roles and responsibilities, and a well-conceived combination of risk prevention, mitigation and coping strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the major factors of growth of Hong Kong using a fairly new approach, which allows the direct inclusion of the factors of growth in the growth equation to be estimated. The growth factors that are found to be important for Hong Kong are physical capital accumulation, (negative) growth of unskilled workers, education, technology spillover (from foreign countries) through retained import of capital goods and inward direct investment, and learning-by-doing through import and domestic manufacturing production. The results strongly suggest that other than primary factor accumulation, education, trade, and foreign direct investment have contributed a lot to the growth of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on Hong Kong and Singapore. There are many similarities between Hong Kong and Singapore. They have both enjoyed high rates of economic growth over the past three decades, averaging six percent a year in real terms. The two have become known as "East Asian Tigers," having made the transition from poverty to newly industrialized economies in a relatively short time. Both started off as British colonies, with British legal and administrative systems, and made their living as trading ports serving their respective regions. Singapore has been an independent republic since 1965, Hong Kong was returned to China on July 1, 1997. Hong Kong and Singapore are both densely populated cities. Hong Kong and Singapore capture economic rent primarily by nationalizing land and leasing it out. In 1998, Hong Kong's land area of 1,095 square kilometers and her population of 6.6 million were both approximately twice those of Singapore. Owing to historical reasons, Hong Kong's land- tenure arrangements produce an effect comparable to that of straightforward land-value taxation.

Based on the ecological scale of Maloney et al. (1973, 1975), the present study is aimed to test the relationship between environmental attitudes and behavior in a more rigorous manner. In doing so, 552 Hong Kong citizens were interviewed and several salient findings were generated. First, along with what is proposed by literature, verbal commitment was found to be the most immediately relevant predictor for one's self-reported actual environmental behavior. Second, when compared between knowledge and affect, the latter was noted to be far more powerful in explaining the self-reported actual environmental behavior. This highlights that the government should rely more on emotional than cognitive appeal for spelling out environmental message. Lastly, the findings also suggested the inclusion of other non-attitudinal factors for predicting the environmental behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines factors that affected the rapid economic development of Hong Kong during the period of industrialization from 1952 to 1974, the period of diversification from 1974 to 1980, and the period of economic integration with China since 1980. The role of Hong Kong's government in the territory's development process is discussed. It is stated that Hong Kong will benefit from its close ties with China so long as China continues to move toward a market economy. The fluctuation in the growth rate of Hong Kong reflect the economy's external environment.

This article is primarily concerned with the functions of bureaucracy in a minimal state and with how those functions might change in response to economic growth. It is predicated on the assumption that bureaucracy is necessary for economic growth even in those countries which seek to achieve such growth through the relatively free operation of the economy within the rubric of a capitalist state. Hong Kong is a case in point. Although it has often been taken as the epitome of the benefits which can be derived from keeping government out of the economy, the bureaucracy has in fact played a critical role in support of economic development. Aside from the functions which must be performed by any state, such as the maintenance of law and order, the administration of justice, and the provision of public works, three features of Hong Kong bureaucratic practice appear to have been important in the definition of the bureaucracy's tasks in the economic growth process. These are 'value for money' and the constant need to justify government expenditure; effective line implementation; and the ability to manage crises. If these constitute minimal essential requirements for such governments, they may provide useful criteria which small or micro-states, following capital growth models but not yet experiencing rapid economic development, can apply in assessing the capabilities of their own bureaucracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article attempts to explain urban spatial formation within imperialist development in locations such as Hong Kong. It also examines the influence of ideological structures on Hong Kong's economic development as a means of furthering theoretical enquiry into the relationship between modes of production of law and social power. The common thread that ties them together is that analyses of Hong Kong's spectacular development within the world system have overwhelmingly concentrated on economic factors and its supposed "laissez-faire system" as the foundation for its success. While the author does not refute the value of economic interpretations, his effort is directed towards redressing the balance by placing greater emphasis on ideological factors. Therefore the following argument is not meant to be a holistic account of Hong Kong's urban development, and it tacitly recognizes the difficulty in artificially separating "the economic" from "the ideological" for the purposes of analysis. Nonetheless, at the risk of bowing to idealism the following work is an attempt to move the debate on from the overly economistic interpretations currently available.