Since 2002, Sir Gordon has also been an honorary consul to the Consulate of the Republic of Croatia. Lai See was intrigued by the choice. Perhaps he was drawn to the ancient charm of Dubrovnik's twisted streets or the azure coastline of Dalmatia.

Or perhaps it was the plucky resolve of the former Yugoslav state to thumb a nose at its authoritarian overlords, fight a war of independence (and win) before building a fairly successful parliamentary democracy and hold general elections since it declared independence in 1991.

But for a suspicion that he might be concocting a three-bridge connection between Hungary, Bosnia and Croatia, we think Sir Gordon Wu might just be a closet democrat.

square deal

It says a lot about Hong Kong that one of its great civic spaces is in fact privately owned - by none other than the Bank.

Lai See was surprised to learn recently that Statue Square in Central is in fact owned by HSBC, which has a 999-year lease on the property. The bank apparently secured the land (which after the second world war served as a temporary car park and was only in 1965 redesigned for 'the enjoyment of the people of Hong Kong') on condition that nothing would ever be built on it. The advantage for HSBC was to guarantee its executives an unimpeded harbour view.

Alas, the government's plans for yet another harbour reclamation could spoil that clever stratagem.

Lai See also understands, by the way, that HSBC's rooftop helipad has long been useless owing to the Airport Authority's refusal to grant the bank the requisite operating permit. Too many tall buildings in the vicinity, it seems.

Perhaps that grand space could also be adapted for public use?

last in line

Starting in January, Citibank and the University of Hong Kong will organise a four-month banking course for business and economics students. Senior Citi Hong Kong executives, including consumer group chief operating officer Weber Lo and treasurer Darius Kotwai, will teach subjects such as treasury cycle management, risk management, branch operations and credit-card business.

Citibank first offered a similar course in Taiwan six years ago, and later extended them to the mainland, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore.

A Citibank spokeswoman said the time was right (finally) to bring the course offerings to Hong Kong, where it has previously sponsored 'stock challenges' and other simulation games for students.

win some, lose some

How is Hutchison Whampoa's 3G business doing in its hometown? Having revealed the firm's aggressive internal profit and subscriber targets on Thursday, Lai See is pleased to shed some light on the firm's local performance in the first 10 months of the year.

According to data gathered by yours truly, about 133,000 subscribers switched to Hutchison's 3 network in the first 10 months. Extrapolating from Hutchison Telecom International managing director Dennis Lui Pok-man's claim that 70 per cent of its 3G subscribers are churners, we infer that Hutchison has about 170,000 3G users. That figure compares with an officially claimed subscriber base of 124,000 as of August 18, meaning the firm is adding about 20,000 subscribers per month. The less good news for Hutchison is that most of its gains have come at the expense of its own second-generation network which turned over 90,000 customers.

Similarly, its maligned CDMA network saw 10,000 of its 40,000 subscribers leave. Among other losers were New World Mobility (lost 103,000 subscribers), Peoples (lost 26,500) and Sunday (lost 7,000) - both CSL and SmarTone have been winners in the past 10 months.