The View | Overzealous bureaucrats are a threat to Hong Kong’s can-do business reputation

Big wishes for the new year are a bit like big wishes for everything – they are rarely fulfilled. So I’m wondering whether it would be possible to start this year with what is really a rather modest wish for Hong Kong’s government to do far less and, in so doing, help both businesses and the public at large.

I must admit that this wish has a very strong element of self-interest as it concerns the work of the Food & Environmental Health Department (FEHD), the people who make life as difficult as possible for Hong Kong’s food business. In case you haven’t noticed, it is one of the city’s biggest business sectors, spanning basic necessities, tourism and entertainment. It also happens to be the sector covering my day job, so that’s my declaration of interest clearly made.

The FEHD employs a small army of clipboard-wielding officials charged with monitoring food safety and allegedly working to ensure that hygiene standards are upheld. The word “allegedly” applies because the zealots in this department seem to be quite incapable of distinguishing between enforcing regulations that really matter and the pernickety application of irrelevant, petty rules.

A good example of this, and one that continues to cause aggravation, is the FEHD’s licensing system for selling ice cream. These rules date back to the days when refrigeration was not universal and the risk of contaminated dairy products was real. Nowadays the overwhelming bulk of ice cream is sold in packages and stored in refrigerated display cabinets supplied by ice cream vendors. The risks of contamination at the point of sale are therefore distinctly minimal.

However it requires an FEHD official (in reality usually two of them because they tend to get lonely working on their own) to come and inspect the fridge and consider its utility for the given purpose. Months – yes, I mean months – then pass between the initial inspection and a follow-up inspection. As there is really very little to inspect, other than the cooling powers of the fridge, something that is standard these days, the time taken is inexplicable.

If questioned over why it takes so long, the answer comes back as “pressure of work”, which is no doubt true because the FEHD bureaucrats are indeed busy with this ludicrously unnecessary task and carry it out relentlessly.

When the department is not busy issuing permits for no good reason, its officials are heavily engaged in the more complex task of identifying people enjoying themselves and minimising the risk of joy becoming widespread.