Hong Kong's hidden barriers to commerce - It's vital to be both persistent and patient

Everyone opening a shop or a restaurant in Hong Kong knows that its principal purpose is to keep landlords happy and prosperous. In the case of restaurants the targets for the spreading of happiness include a small army of bureaucrats with a voracious appetite for forms and excruciating pieces of micro-regulation.

Operators of these businesses naturally have a different view as to their principal purpose, but they cannot ignore the rapacious demands of these powerful organisations.

Last week I wrote about some of the basic things that had to be done to open a new restaurant. I tried to focus on the positive but left the worst for last. Maybe recalling the sheer frustration and anger over dealing with the landlord and the bureaucrats was too raw.

I am not alone: I have yet to meet anyone in a similar position who has not shared these experiences and so any account of opening a new restaurant would be incomplete without including this part of the story.

Hong Kong has a notably small choice of landlords and they tend to behave in similar ways. In Kowloon Bay, where my restaurant is located, there is basically a choice of three very large property developers; we ended up in the hands of the largest, because it offered the best location.

Let us set aside the obvious matter of high rents; this, arguably, is a matter of market forces. Far more worrying is the attitude of the landlord.