Jack Ma's inspiring example
Updated: 2015-02-03 06:29
(HK Edition)
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For years the government has talked about economic diversification.
In recent years this has become more than merely an economic issue. An over reliance on a few sectors - particularly finance and property - is blamed for the widening wealth gap between a small number of wealthy people and the rest of the population.
Undeniably, the unbalanced Hong Kong economy has been growing at a brisk rate. The financial sector, especially, has benefitted from the increasingly diversified capital needs of mainland enterprises.
The boom in the financial sector, together with large inflows of investment funds, has combined to push property prices to levels affordable for ever fewer Hong Kong people.
The wealth gap in the 1950s and 1960s, when there was a huge influx of penniless immigrants, was conceivably wider than it is now. But the more diversified economy of those times at least offered young people hope of moving up the social ladder through intelligence and hard work.
Living conditions for most people were worse in those days. However the thriving manufacturing industry provided numerous opportunities. Despite low wages, many managed to save sufficient funds to start their own business producing low-cost consumer goods for export.
Indeed, some of today's wealthiest people, including Li Ka-shing, started out with small factories. The low cost of factory ownership encouraged many young people to become entrepreneurs.
Their exploits earned Hong Kong the enviable reputation of a city of great opportunity for ambitious youth. A good time to be young, when even the average factory worker on a meager salary, had something to look forward to - "fire in their bellies".
That fire has been extinguished since the 1980s when the plentiful supply of land and labor in the Pearl River Delta region triggered a wholesale exodus of factories from Hong Kong. As a result, the window of social mobility is slowly closing on more and more Hong Kong young people.
Meanwhile, escalating property prices further exacerbate their concerns, making them feel they have been excluded from the economic growth that enriched a small minority. Many young people now vent their anger at the establishment, primarily the government, which they blame for not addressing their problems.
The government, to its credit, has made much effort and allocated considerable resources to promote entrepreneurship in Hong Kong. But there is a limit to what the bureaucracy can do other than making subsidized premises available to qualified startups.
Business people, who are better judges of the viability of a startup and the capability of the entrepreneur behind it, can play a key role in making this government initiative a success. For that reason, the lead taken by e-commerce tycoon Jack Ma, in establishing a HK$1 billion fund to finance qualified young Hong Kong entrepreneurs and offering them a platform to tap the mainland market, should be seen as a significant first step in the right direction.
Hopefully, Ma's example can inspire Hong Kong's business community.
(HK Edition 02/03/2015 page1)