THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL of InvestHK, Mike Rowse, has a way with words. 'Cleaner and neater' is how he describes a proposal that the government now pay for 85 per cent of a proposed exhibition centre at the airport instead of the originally suggested 50 per cent.
This is an example of a form of thought known as economic flatitude, in other words a whole lot of hot air expressed at a . . . ahem . . . basic level.
It should strike you, that the exhibition trade seems to have found the new centre less of an urgent necessity than we had earlier been led to believe by its boosters. A Legco panel was told on Monday that private consortia think the centre should initially occupy a smaller area and be expanded only when demand rises.
So not only is the government now being asked to pay much more of the HK$2 billion construction costs but the project's size is to be scaled down by 40 per cent from the original 1.07 million square feet.
This is not surprising when you remember that the original consultant's report cast doubts on its viability. What a rare phenomenon, a consultant who let the facts rule his findings. Count on it that this was the last job his firm will do for the government.
And then we get Mr Rowse's reasoning that a 15 per cent equity stake in the project should still go to the private sector on the grounds that this will guarantee an efficient construction cost.
