LettersWhy Alibaba’s Jack Ma is right about Hong Kong and its smart city dreams

Ma, an entrepreneur through and through, made the point I have been trying to get across for a long time (Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post). Our inefficient, red-tape-bound government in Hong Kong, overcrowded with overlapping departments, councils, authorities, advisory bodies and what have you, is lost, and losing the plot fast.

While China is buzzing with e-commerce, smart traffic and all kinds of exciting innovations, Hong Kong cannot even reach a consensus on tunnel fees.

We like to pretend we are becoming an innovation hub, but it is becoming clearer by the day that we are just playing catch-up, and not leading the race.

What we desperately need is a total overhaul of the civil service – all the various councils, advisory bodies, the layers upon layers of government departments – too many of the same faces, in different capacities, which has led us to fall behind many jurisdictions around us.

This is where the pro-democracy movement can gain legitimacy. Attack the government for its failings: its lack of vision, its laziness to join the march of progress.