It all went quite well. The people were, on the whole, positive about the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Now we look forward to the coming decade. It is clear what Hong Kong has to do. It has to make qualitative improvements to as many aspects of life in the city as possible, as well as being economically competitive, environmentally healthy and socially convivial. Hong Kong's entrepreneurs understand they have to survive in the global market place. They know they need to adapt to changing circumstances locally, nationally and internationally. Our companies have always had to stay ahead of the game to survive. Those who fail, fall away and are replaced by others. Hong Kong companies have always done quite well in the external economy. Our problems are in the domestic economy, where the large property-based conglomerates dominate many sectors. They are able to do so because they can rely on property income to support other businesses. To make the domestic sector more competitive, the government has to not only provide a competition law and regulatory regime, but it should also review its land policy. The latter won't be easy, because the most powerful businesses in town will lobby against it. In any event, our politicians probably do not have a clear vision of how to chart a new course for land policy so that development gains can be re-set to produce revenue for the public purse and also create a more competitive economy. The challenge to improve the environment is also vital for our future. However, we won't get there unless the new administration makes public health a policy priority. We have yet to see the ministers for health and environment work together to set tight environmental and food safety standards. There is clearly an opportunity for them to collaborate and convince their cabinet colleagues on what are the optimal policy choices, and then to lobby the public for support. Luckily, the city's fiscal position is exceptionally strong. Hong Kong has the resources to address many of its environmental and public health problems. The people are waiting for leadership. A contemporary, socially convivial society is one that is active, vivacious and agreeable. It is more than just 'harmonious' - local political-speak for less opposition to the executive. Conviviality comes from active and on-going engagement, where the political process provides for genuine deliberation about public decisions and the making of public choices. Unfortunately, our officials see engagement as an administrative instrument to get people to agree to their choices, without really offering citizens a chance to deliberate and debate options and the pros and cons for them. It seems Hong Kong will not be able to achieve universal and equal suffrage any time very soon, possibly not even by 2017. This means it is even more important for there to be political processes that truly engage the people, as it will be through participatory deliberation that those in power will derive mandates on specific choices and decisions. The administration knows this, which is why the senior officials say they will govern according to 'public opinion'. In fact, it would be better for them to focus on designing engagement processes that truly help them to deliberate with citizens, rather than to manage their own message in order to create a semblance of consensus. The risk is that all sides will end up being unhappy. Officials will feel they have spent time on 'engagement', but the public will feel they are merely brought in to enable decision-makers to either say they had been consulted, or that there was consensus when the public was in fact ambivalent, or worse, in disagreement. Christine Loh Kung-wai is chief executive of the think-tank Civic Exchange
