The former head of the government think-tank has urged the administration to spend its surpluses on improving public services, and not to repeat mistakes of the colonial era.
Leo Goodstadt, pre-handover head of the Central Policy Unit, said one of the key challenges was 'to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past where the government says we don't have enough money for improving public services'.
Tomorrow, he launches his book Profits, Politics and Panics: Hong Kong's Banks and the Making of a Miracle Economy, 1935-1985, in which he analyses the 'unhealthy' relationship between officials and the banking industry.
He concludes that it was only through reform, transparency and professionalism that Hong Kong developed its present-day reputation for banking.
'Because the banks needed to be protected, we needed big government reserves to rescue them if there was trouble, which meant we did not spend money on education,' he said. 'We did not spend money on important social services. There was a serious price to pay for weak banking, and we're paying for it today.'
He added: 'Today, people say people over 40 or 50 have no future because they had bad education in the past.