Hong Kong-vs-Singapore
Who is winning?
Under China's watch, Hong Kong stays ahead of Singapore in several areas with new twist. By Seah Chiang Nee
Dec 12, 2004

Last Sunday, I walked along Hong Kong's Causeway Bay and gained a new understanding of why Mr Lee Kuan Yew sometimes wishes Singaporeans were more like the people of Hong Kong.

What I saw was a carnival scene, a little organised chaos and a picture of flourishing business created from adversity.

Several streets around Victoria Park were packed with maids from Indonesia and the Philippines sitting around the pavements enjoying their day off.

It was like a huge picnic of more than 1,000 people eating lunch, chatting and listening to music. It is repeated every Sunday.

By the roadsides, mini-buses displayed photographs of maids seeking jobs. You could just walk up, interview one and sign her up without any bureaucratic fuss.

In Singapore, I quickly told myself, such scenes would not have been possible.

I'm pretty sure that Singaporeans by the hundreds would have complained to the authorities about the crowds and the noise; businessmen would want them removed for blocking their shops.

And in 10 minutes, the efficient Singapore police would have moved in and cleared everything away.

Well, that's what makes Hong Kong different. The former British colony is less regulated and a lot livelier.

Slowly, Singaporeans are learning that orderliness and tranquillity do not always spell economic opportunities.

Instead of getting the police to evict them, the Hong Kong shopkeepers did better. Instead of whining, they turned adversity into ringing cash registers and making money from the crowds.

"Kedai makanan" dished out Indonesian takeaways. Others sold Suara, a Jakarta newspaper, clothes and cosmetics, mobile phone products, from ring-tones to IDD discounts and money transfer services.

Several provision shops sold Indonesian goods. A dozen Indonesian girls were paid to distribute flyers at street corners.

But it was not only the people who stood out. The authorities, too, were tolerant in allowing small private entrepreneurs to do their stuff.

Faced with the same situation, the Singapore government would probably be handling it in a regulatory way. Break the law and you would get fined.

Hong Kong's laissez-faire did not leave with the British; the traditions of free private enterprise beat our city hands down.

Top-down Singapore, on the other hand, is just beginning to encourage a greater creative spirit among its 4.25 million population.

In the republic, many big businesses are controlled and run by the government. In Hong Kong, the city owns next to nothing.

Singaporeans generally aspire to get a degree and a high paying job, while their counterparts in Hong Kong dream of going into business and making a fortune.

Several years ago during a media forum, a newspaper editor asked for my assessment of the Hong Kong-Singapore rivalry.

The question was: "Who will win?" It is older than Singapore's independence; laissez-faire versus controlled economy, creativity against hard work and discipline, etc.

I've just returned from a six-day visit to Hong Kong's "conveyance belt" lifestyle and thought I would compare how restructuring Singapore is faring against it.

Its seven million people are used to lining up even to pay bills, finishing quickly and moving on. The queues are always long. Densely populated Singapore is only slightly better; that's why we call it a fishbowl.

The frequent comparisons are understandable. Both cities were once British trading posts without natural resources whose wealth lies within their peoples.

The contrasts, too, are just as great. One post-Sept 11 difference is in security threat. I immediately felt it upon arrival.

I left behind a Singapore, which was patrolled by special police armed with sub-machineguns. In Hong Kong, policemen at Tsim Sha Tsui helped lost tourists if they're not catching criminals.

Hong Kong, under China's rule for seven years, is free of this fear.

There's no national service. China protects the city and underwrites its defence, saving it billions in defence cost. Similarly for its foreign service.

These savings strengthen its competitiveness against Singapore and every one else. But it is the people who make the main difference. They are exceedingly more entrepreneurial and creative.

Singaporeans, on the other hand, are averse to business risks. They are generally better in their studies, make better professionals like engineers, scientists and mathematicians.

Every year, some 35,000 to 40,000 highly literate youths emerge from Singapore's education system with a one-track ambition to land a high paying job.

The island enjoys a powerful lead in the knowledge field and in skilled services - miles ahead in research and biotechnology.

Hong Kong, on the other hand, is 10 years ahead in the creative fields, including movies, TV, music and fashion.

Both cities want to be Asia's New York or London, but comparative advantage swings towards Hong Kong because of its lighter censorship and greater personal liberties.

Highly regulated Singapore doesn't readily grant its citizens and businessmen a freer hand than Hong Kong.

Without a Government Investment Corporation (GIC) or a Temasek, Hong Kong lacks an official role in foreign and domestic investment, hence lacking the republic's external pair of wings.

In this, the future favours Singapore in the longer term as Hong Kong's trading role continues to be eclipsed by Shanghai and other Chinese cities.

Singapore has also drawn ahead with its vast state reserves, which allow it to survive better in any economic storm.

Both, however, are efficient users of human resources, a trained, generally honest civil service that helps attract investors.

But as jobs get harder to create, Singapore wants to have more of Hong Kong's qualities.

It's well known that when a Singaporean loses his job, he will start cursing the government; his Hong Kong peer would simply brush it off as a fact of life.

And as time goes on, this Chinese city, too, will likely hanker for some of Singapore's organisation.

At a hilly Kowloon park, I saw a notice board with a whole bunch of 12 regulations one could see only in Singapore - no eating, no noise, no climbing, no smoking, etc.

And at the airport, security guards would measure and refuse entry to any hand-held luggage that was even an inch larger than what was allowed.

As to "who will win?" I'm afraid it may take many more years for an answer. One thing is certain - each is trying to attain what the other is good at.

(Contributed specially for The Sunday Star for Dec 12, 2004)