MTR needs to get back on the right track
- New chiefs at Hong Kong’s troubled railway company will have their work cut out in restoring its international reputation and trust with the public
The MTR Corporation is a lot like the Hong Kong government. Financially, both are in robust health. In terms of virtually every commonly cited economic metric, they are doing well. Yet, somehow, the numbers disguise a fundamental problem: public trust is being eroded. This is no accident.
As its majority shareholder, the government has, over the years, committed the railway company to controversial large-scale infrastructure projects mired in delays, cost overruns and/or construction scandals.
Would it have fared better if it had remained a transport arm of the government, or alternatively, fully privatised? We will never know. But something about its being a public utility and a profit-seeking company is clearly not working.
The scandal-hit HK$97.1 billion Sha Tin-Central link, the MTR’s most expensive project to date, is just the latest. It has forced CEO Lincoln Leong Kwok-kuen to take early retirement and non-executive chairman Frederick Ma Si-hang to step down at the end of June. Their heads rolled, so to speak, so government transport officials didn’t have to take any of the blame.
Leong will be replaced by Jacob Kam Chak-pui who is currently in charge of operations and the company’s mainland business.
An MTR veteran with an engineering PhD, he is thoroughly versed in the technical side of the business. He was reportedly picked over several candidates from overseas. Perhaps, the company and the government didn’t want a repeat of the Jay Walder episode, a former MTR CEO who was blamed for failing to come forward about delays in completing the high-speed rail link connecting Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. As a result, Walder and another executive left under a cloud.
Meanwhile Rex Auyeung Pak-kuen, with extensive management experience in the insurance industry, will take over from Ma.
Kam and Auyeung have their work cut out for them. The MTR’s operational efficiency and safety were once admired around the world; it still runs one of the world’s best subway systems. But its reputation has perhaps taken an irreparable dent. Restoring public trust must now be its No 1 priority.
The MTR needs to demonstrate it has learned some tough lessons from an official commission of inquiry into the Sha Tin-Central link fiasco and to open the new line as soon as practicable. It must practise better supervision of contractors and subcontractors to make sure no one cuts corners, as well as closer coordination with the government to ensure accountability.
