UPDATE: Debacle in Dubai

This column by Indian academic Ajay Shah originally published in Financial Express offers some interesting analysis on the debt debacle in Dubai. You may also wish to read this extensive April 2009 report by Johann Hari, a commentator for The Independent newspaper in the UK. A good airport, port, glass office towers, and computerized trading [...]

UPDATE: Ronald Arculli on the BBC’s HARDtalk

The BBC interview show HARDtalk recently came to Hong Kong. The Chairman of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, Ronald Arculli, who is a member of the Executive Council, was a guest. You can view a clip from that program here. For a limited time, you can listen to the entire interview here.

Consultation on Electoral Reform

The Hong Kong SAR Government must be concerned about the outside world’s perception of its political system and development. Monica Chen, the Director of the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office in New York, just sent out this e-mail letter to contacts in the US: Dear Friends, On November 18, the Hong Kong SAR Government [...]

Next Week: Professor Amy Tsui

Our guest next week – our final class – will be Professor Amy B.M. Tsui, a Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong. We will discuss education reform in Hong Kong and the SAR’s efforts to promote innovation and creativity to ensure that it remains competitive in the global economy. In advance of the class, [...]

Does Taiwan Hold Lessons for Hong Kong?

In March last year, Zoher Abdoolcarim, the Asia editor at Time magazine who was our guest the other week, wrote an essay on the Taiwan elections and the rise of Ma Ying-jeou, the island’s Hong Kong-born leader. Can Hong Kong learn anything from how Taiwan’s politics have developed? Even though the “worst-case scenario” for Beijing [...]

Press Freedom in Hong Kong

The Paris-based group Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders) has just released its Press Freedom Index 2009. Hong Kong is ranked No. 48 (up from 51 in 2008), just ahead of Italy, Romania, Turkish Cyprus, the Maldives and Mauritius and just below Argentina, Slovakia and Spain. Topping the ranking are Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and [...]

Reforming Hong Kong’s Capital Markets

While Hong Kong has emerged as an international financial center, critics say that the SAR isn’t doing enough to maintain that position. In particular, they argue, the rights of minority shareholders have to be strengthened and protected. David Webb, a former investment banker, is a shareholder rights activist who has been campaigning for better corporate [...]

Hong Kong “Gives You the World”

In class this morning, our guest Zoher Abdoolcarim mentioned this personal reflection on Hong Kong that he wrote for Time’s special report on the SAR 10 years after the handover.

Obama on Asia

In Tokyo this morning, American President Barack Obama delivered a speech outlining US policy in Asia. The transcript of the address is available here.

Talking Heads: The First Ten Years of the SAR

Two years ago, on the 10th anniversary of the handover, newspapers, magazines and other publications ran many articles reviewing the first decade of the SAR. To examine how Hong Kong had managed, Time magazine convened a roundtable forum that included former Chief Secretary Anson Chan, tycoon Gordon Wu, activist and former legislator Christine Loh, former [...]