Analysis | Hong Kong needs to end sense of drift and embrace opportunities in the world

Where has Hong Kong's celebrated "can do" attitude gone? There was a time when our city's businesses were famous around the world for their entrepreneurialism and confidence.

Now it seems, as Hong Kong enters yet another turning point in its history. there is increasing uncertainty about this great city's role not only within China, but in global business and financial markets.

We are in danger of losing some of the strength and certainty that Hong Kong business projected globally over the past four decades. During the 1970s, we rose to become the world's toy and garment workshop, then as a booming trade centre in the 1980s servicing Deng Xiaoping's open door to China, before evolving in the 1990s as a banking and financial centre up there with London and New York.

The first decade of the 21st century witnessed Hong Kong not only come to terms with its status as a part of China, it solidified its role as a base for investment into the mainland while serving as a launching pad for Chinese investment abroad.

But a sense of drift and loss of focus is in danger of settling on the city, which has become overly fixated on governance issues. The election of the chief executive in 2017 is important, but it is not the only challenge facing Hong Kong. In focusing on the outcome in three years' time of a process now under way, we risk losing sight of the bigger picture.

The biggest opportunity for Hong Kong during this decade is to become an innovative global hub servicing China's financial evolution and transformation into a services economy.

As progress with capital account liberalisation continues and the pace of investment quickens - soon to be accelerated by direct share trading between Hong Kong and Shanghai - the financial services industry must work harder to find a competitive advantage as the interlocutor between the mainland and rest of the world.