Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa spoke strongly against 'collusion between business and government' in his policy address. If he had been listening to the business community, he would have mentioned a different concern: the erosion of Hong Kong's free market, as shown by the Hunghom Peninsula and Link Reit sagas.
According to the latest Heritage Foundation index, Hong Kong still ranks as the world's freest economy, thanks to its low tax regime, open market and the government's minimum intervention policy.
The factors most important for private business confidence are: institutional safeguards such as the rule of law, respect for rights and freedoms; access to markets; and an environment that favours the market as the key mechanism for allocation of resources and satisfying wants. On these counts, Hong Kong remains as capitalist as ever.
But a free market should not be the only economic imperative for Hong Kong. Consumer interests, redistribution issues and developmental goals also have to be considered in any restructuring strategy. The Link controversy, for example, has triggered wider debates on the merits of privatising public assets. It coincides with increasing resentment, among trade unions and employees, about the adverse impacts of the widespread use of contracting out in government and public organisations - including schools and universities.
Some worry that the Link's fate may affect forthcoming government exercises in asset disposal, including the privatisation of the Airport Authority and the future listing of the proposed merged railway corporation.
Much of the doubt about the privatisation of government-owned public utilities relates to how privatisation is to be done. Namely, whether the large conglomerates could buy the privatised entities at unduly cheap prices; and how the interests of individual and corporate consumers can be properly safeguarded - rather than a total rejection of privatisation per se. In other words, it is more a debate on how to make the market work better, and more fairly, with regard to various stakeholders.