ALL the early indications are that it may be a less boring - perhaps even moderately interesting - policy address which Tung Chee-hwa will deliver in October.
Anyone who has talked to the Chief Executive about this is left in no doubt that he wants to deliver something substantially shorter than last year's 135-minute epic.
After all, it took President Bill Clinton little more than half as long to make his last State of the Union address. If a superpower's agenda can be set out in 75 minutes, there is no reason why it should take so much longer for tiny Hong Kong.
Now almost two years have passed since the formation of the SAR, there are signs of a belief that it is time to change the basic approach adopted towards the policy address since the handover.
In October 1997, Mr Tung needed to lay out his overall vision for Hong Kong. That included not only major matters, such as housing and education policy. It also meant devoting time to less mainstream issues, like the future of the film industry as well as the Vietnamese boat people.
In 1998, he used his second speech to elaborate on such areas. But that approach has now run its course. Were Mr Tung just to go over the same old ground yet again this October, it would make for a speech with little new, and probably even longer than last year's epic.
