Inside Out | Hong Kong millennials’ trust in government surprisingly higher than others. But what brought about this change?
- Public relations agency annual Edelman’s Trust Barometer shows Hongkongers’ trust levels in government, media, business and NGOs surged by an average 10 percentage points to 55pc – the biggest jump of any of the 27 economies surveyed
- Survey suggests that voters are happy with Chief Executive Carrie Lam, compared to her predecessor CY Leung
I used to work here in Hong Kong with a US public relations firm that had a whole suite of products branded “TrustWorks”. I had a wonderful time taunting US-based colleagues that for American companies, the concept of trust was a contradiction in terms: the legal labyrinths embroiling business life in the US were after all built on the foundational assumption that you could trust no one.
That, after all, was why so much time and money was spent on lawyers drafting tightly crafted legal contracts.
By contrast, I used to argue that Asia was the home of trust. In the absence of strong or accessible legal systems, business could only work effectively on the basis that you could trust – and had a long-term trusting relationship with – whoever you did business with.
My US colleagues boisterously brushed off my obvious cynicism, and sold their “TrustWorks” products to clients across Asia anyway. I never discovered whether they worked, or were profitable.
But as the public relations agency Edelman last week released their annual “Trust Barometer” measuring the state of “trust” worldwide, I was reminded that however well-founded my cynicism about the American relationship with trust, the concept is obviously critical to our lives, and in particular in business where week by week you so often have to try to engage with total strangers for mutual profit.
