Missed opportunities and broken promises - these are what come to mind for those working in the 'six new pillar industries' once identified by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen as having a bright future.
One of them, Richard Fung, chief executive of the Hong Kong Standards and Testing Centre, said he had been shocked to learn that his field of business - testing and certification, a relatively unknown sector - had been chosen as one of the six whose development was to be boosted.
'I was expecting the government to come up with good ideas to develop the industry,' he said.
It was the Task Force on Economic Challenges, an advisory body established and chaired by Tsang in response to the financial tsunami of 2008, which first came up with the idea of the six industries. The highlighting of these sectors - cultural and creative industries, medical services, education services, innovation and technology, testing and certification services and environmental industries - was repeated in Tsang's policy address the following year.
In Fung's industry, Tsang's announcement triggered a fight for talent, as manufacturers sought technicians to carry out internal testing of their products, he said.
But Fung's enthusiasm turned to frustration as the industry failed to expand in later years: the number of people in the trade dropped, from 12,420 in 2008 to 12,390 in 2010.