A LOCAL estate agency owner stunned an international gathering of blue riband developers, investors and realtors meeting in Hong Kong last week, telling them they ''lacked guts and under-standing'' by not getting involved in the local and China property markets. Stephen Suen, managing director of Treasure Land Realty, told a gathering of the International Real Estate Institute that many of the reservations ead made in improving its human rights record, stemming corruption, improving its legal system and becoming more democratic. ''China is improving,'' he said. ''You have to give them time. Things 20 years ago were bad. They have made progress.'' Mr Suen outlined a number of beliefs and assumptions which he said precluded overseas investors from taking advantage of a booming property market in Hong Kong and China. He said investors ''hold the misguided belief that you can't have a good economy without a democracy. That is just wrong''. Despite corruption, Mr Suen said the Chinese economy still had a strong growth rate. He said the Government was working hard to stamp out corruption and that it was ''an evolutionary process''. A real estate professional from Germany said the reluctance was based less on the insistence on democracy and more on the fear that the Chinese government would not respect private property in Hong Kong after 1997. The events of Tiananmen Square had suggested to the world - and to international investors - that a government capable of such conduct could not be counted on to respect private property, he said. Mr Suen said that kind of thinking reflected a lack of understanding of what was occurring in China. Turning to China's human rights record, he said even the United States was softening its position in trying to link human rights to a renewal of China's Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trading status. ''When you need the foreign exchange, the tone will be much softer,'' he said of President Bill Clinton's statements on the issue. ''The US would be badly hurt if they do not renew MFN. The Chinese will probably find a way for the Americans to save face by releasing a few more dissidents.'' According to Mr Suen, that same principle applied to investors. ''No business will link business to politics,'' he said. Mr Suen said the single biggest hurdle to overseas investors coming to Hong Kong and China was their ignorance of doing business. ''The problem is that companies from the US and Europe don't have adequate knowledge,'' he said. ''Twelve months ago, the media in the US and Europe had a very high regard for China. But the fact is the economy was doing very well three years ago.'' Some investors shied away simply because of their ignorance of developments in China, he said. However, Chris Moran, another German developer, said the international reluctance to invest in the Hong Kong real estate market boiled down to a concern about the Chinese yuan. Until it stabilised, international investors were not going to invest in Hong Kong for fear that their investments could ultimately be worthless. xpressed about investing in China did not make business sense. He said investors should give China credit for the progress it h
