When it comes to business between companies and governments – which has traditionally been a delicate dance – US president-elect Donald Trump and his “first buddy” Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, are redefining how it works.
There have always been efforts to align the interests of the public and private spheres. The process has usually been more discreet. The apparent shift towards more open alignment isn’t exceptionally American. It seems to be happening in Hong Kong, too.
“Conflicts of interest” and “collusion with business” were accusations once levelled by the opposition in yesteryear’s Hong Kong. Recently, such talk has become a lot less common. The government seems more involved in the business of businesses in a departure from its role of simply creating an environment that supports and encourages entrepreneurship and investment.
Last month, Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, met Hong Kong business leaders and government officials in Shenzhen at a symposium where he urged business heads to “illustrate their love for the country and Hong Kong with concrete actions, actively support the administration by the chief executive and the [city] government in accordance with the law and take the initiative to shoulder the responsibility in promoting high-quality economic development in Hong Kong”.
In September, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said that businesspeople and entrepreneurs “are not bystanders” in Hong Kong. Echoing Xia’s words at the Shenzhen symposium, Lee later told Hong Kong businesspeople to go beyond being “bystanders and commentators” and take “practical actions” to contribute to the city’s development amid a period of economic transformation.
Early last week, Lee led a delegation of 80 people to a conference in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki and the delegation then visited mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area. On Friday, at a ceremony attended by Lee and Zheng Yanxiong, the director of the central government’s liaison office, 85 business leaders signed a memorandum of understanding, pledging their support for the Northern Metropolis.