$10m man puts Greenspan in lower league

He engineered the biggest economic recovery the United States has ever seen and rescued economies on three continents. Yet recently-retired United States Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin cannot rival the Hong Kong Government's Kwong Ki-chi.

In salary, that is.

For when Mr Kwong, 48, jumps ship to the merged stock and futures exchange later this month, he will enjoy a salary that is not only high by the standards of the Hong Kong civil service, but far higher than some of the biggest names in world finance.

Take Mr Rubin. When he took office in 1992, the US budget deficit was US$255 billion (about HK$1.98 trillion) and the Dow was less than 4,000 points. When he left in May last year the budget was in surplus and the Dow at 11,000. Wall Street and many ordinary Americans eulogised him.

His salary at the end of his term was US$151,800 (about HK$1.18 million) a year. Mr Kwong is widely expected to start on a annual salary, including bonuses, of HK$10 million - more than eight times as large.

And what about Alan Greenspan, the other figure hailed as the architect of America's unparallelled boom? Mr Greenspan is currently getting along just fine on even less. In 1998 he received a salary of US$137,000 (about HK$1.06 million). Mr Greenspan has to work for 10 months to earn what Mr Kwong will earn in just one.