IT IS NOW barely two weeks to that annual ritual of the October Policy Address - a speech which would normally have been written long before now.
After all, the drafting process generally begins back in the spring. And by this stage, virtually all that is usually left to do is for Tung Chee-hwa to dot the i's and cross the t's on his set-piece speech.
But that clearly will not be the case this year. After all, the world has changed since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon - and, with it, Hong Kong's economic outlook.
So it stands to reason that much of what the Central Policy Unit think-tank, which co-ordinates the drafting process, had prepared before the September 11 assaults is now out of date. And that Mr Tung's team must now be scrambling to come up with something new to address this greatly altered environment in time for his October 10 speech.
Whether it is a tax rebate, or greater government spending on infrastructure to try to stimulate the economy in the wake of the attacks, or simply a matter of trying to counteract the doom and gloom that has become so pervasive since these attacks, all these are matters Mr Tung will have to address.
Indeed he has been busy conducting last-minute consultations with local political parties on their views on his Policy Address. And Information Co-ordinator Stephen Lam Sui-lung has been quoted by some local papers as saying that the fast-moving global situation means no final decision has yet been taken on the overall direction of the speech.