A tale of two cities – Hong Kong and Singapore
Hong Kong
I grew up in Hong Kong, a crown colony of the United Kingdom, during the age of 6-13. I remember I would open my room window only to face the window of a residence of a neighboring building. People everywhere play a kind of Chinese gambling similar to bridge called Mahjong. The playing medium is not cards but tiny plastic blocks that make noises while playing. The noise can be very annoying from the window next building when you try to sleep at midnight.
Hong Kong gambles on all kinds. You can bet on horse racing, horse trotting, dog racing, Mahjong, cards playing, or anything. You can buy things from all the world cheaply in Hong Kong because of the very low tax and excise structure. The rate is close to nothing. Hong Kong was truly a world shopping and dining heaven for all.
Today, Hong Kong is still a free island even as a SAR (Special Administration Region) of the People’s Republic of China. Hong Kong plays Mahjong 24 hours around the clock. There have been some changes though. McDonald is a new place now to accommodate those who stay up the whole night. This makes McDonald sleepless with Hong Kong.
Hong Kong maintains a highly capitalist economy built on a policy of free market, low taxation and government non-intervention. It still continues on business practice established under the British administration in the old colonial days. The Government of Hong Kong leaves most of the economic direction to the market forces of the private sector.
For a century, Hong Kong has been operating freely under the non-official intervention policy. Hong Kong levies a very low tax to finance a small public sector civil workers. It has often been cited as a laissez-faire capitalism of the world. It ranks the world’s top in the Index of Economic Freedom for 13 consecutive years. The Economic Freedom of the World Report also places Hong Kong first as the world’s freest economy.
Yet, in terms of gross domestic product per capita and gross metropolitan product, Hong Kong is second to none. Hong Kong is the wealthiest urban city among all in the People’s Republic of China. The GDP (PPP) per capita of Hong Kong exceeds the four big economies in Western Europe (UK, France, Germany, Italy), as well as Japan.
Driven by exports, the economy grew at an average annual rate of 8.9 percent in the 1970s. Hong Kong then achieved a growth rate of 7.2 percent in the 1980s. She was one of the Four Asian Tigers on par with Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan during this period of rapid economic growth. As Hong Kong matured to become a financial centre, growth slowed to an average of 2.7 percent annually in the 1990s. In 2006, Hong Kong’s per-capita GDP ranked as the 6th highest in the world, well ahead of Switzerland, Denmark, and Japan.
Singapore
I flew to study in Sydney in 1964 when I was 14 years old. I stopped by Singapore for a night before continuing a forward long haul flight to Australia. I was stopped and refused entry at the Airport for reason of my hair that touched on my shirt collar. Hippy was rampant in the 1960’s and Singapore issued an un-welcome note to those who keep hair with length touching his collar. I spent the night at the Airport and took Qantas to Sydney the next morning.
Singapore also put up with countless social and economic strict restrictions for the island. Throwing cigarette bud or spitting on street, a common sight in Hong Kong, will cause a heavy fine in Singapore. Pregnancy was tax penalized for the third child in the family and Government public servants were to wear white shirt to work. There were regulation, restriction, rule, law, policy came out one after another to establish a tightly control society.
Yet, Singapore thrives well year after year since Independence in August 9, 1965. Her standard of living has elevated sharply. State-led education, manufacturing, investment, tourism and trade ushered the island to high prosperity.
Singapore is the 17th wealthiest country in the world in terms of GDP per capita. The small nation has a foreign reserve of S$222 billion (US$147 billion). The grossly regulated policy has led Singapore to join the world developed nations echelon.
The two diversities
What has kept me in wonder is why the two islands of entirely opposite administration style can both do well. A laissez-faire Hong Kong has been performing so well as a well regulated Singapore.
I sometimes like to think of these twin cities as fowls. One is being raised up freely in a backyard and the other is in a small farm house cages.
What really make the fowl grow? Could it be the environment? Is it a freely roaming back yard or row and row of cages? Or is it because of the food? The freely roam is pecking natural worms and insects while those in cages are having ready made feed.
After having pondered for a while, I have come to a conclusion that it is really either the environment or food but more to the species of the fowl. It is the fowl that manage to adapt to live in the environment so provided. I imagine that if I move the fowl from the farm cage to the back yard and vice versa, I am sure both fowls will grow well after a period of adaptation.