Opinion | The coronavirus and protests have disrupted lives in Hong Kong. Where’s the long-term vision for this battered city?

Trying to contact French, British or American children who normally live in Hong Kong has become hard work these days. No, they are not at school or playing after-school sports. Many expatriate students, stretching from kindergarten age through to high school, are simply out of town. So are their parents.

“The virus and the ongoing school closure[s] have certainly upended our children’s lives. I am concerned that schools may remain closed even beyond Easter,” said one mum who took her children to the United States in the early days of the breakout.

She is now in Australia so her children can undertake online learning in a similar time zone. But she is hesitant to return to Hong Kong until she feels more confident that the government has made a final decision on when schools will reopen.

Frazzled international families are not alone in finding it hard to plan for the future. Patchy communications and a near obsession with daily administrative tasks has impeded the Hong Kong government from providing a badly needed vision for this badly bruised city. And while the coronavirus is a red alert problem, the international business community also needs to plan well beyond 2020.

For a handful of long and arduous months last year, Hong Kong was a violent and distracted city. Images of tear gas and rioters spread across the internet and giant TV screens globally, putting a heavy dent in our hard-earned reputation as a premier city for international business.