Introducing market reforms is never easy in this city.
The latest case is the government's proposal for a Chapter 11-style bankruptcy protection bill that has just completed its third consultation since 2000 but still there are few signs of a general consensus.
The market is well aware that for too long it has lagged behind the United States, Britain, Australia and the mainland where troubled companies are given breathing space to find a white knight or restructure their debts, safe in the knowledge that no creditor can seek a winding-up order.
Here, a company can go into liquidation if just one creditor applies for it to be wound up.
It was 14 years ago that a law reform committee stressed the need for bankruptcy protection and there have been two attempts to introduce a bill - in 2001 and 2003 - but they failed over disputes about how to handle employees' unpaid wages and entitlements.
The 2001 proposal said staff would be entitled to all unpaid salary before the firm began its corporate rescue. Unionists were happy but the business sector and accountants rejected the plan, pointing out that if a company could pay the entitlements, it would not need to be rescued.
The 2003 proposal added a cap of HK$270,000 per employee but this, too, was rejected.