From Sars to Occupy, former chief executive Donald Tsang looks back on challenges Hong Kong has faced in past 20 years

An old friend came from Europe recently to offer me moral support and comforting words. He has long retired and seldom travels outside Europe. He last visited Hong Kong at my invitation to witness the handover ceremony in July 1997. A septuagenarian like myself, he still could not hold his excitement once he landed here. He spoke almost non-stop, marvelling at the physical changes that had taken place here – our airport, bridges and highways, Disneyland, MTR extensions, property developments decorating our harbourfront including the IFC, ICC, government buildings at Tamar, etc.

He wondered how Hong Kong could continue to renew itself while his hometown in Europe had stayed almost the same for the past 40 years.

I chuckled with pride at his excitement. He made me mull over the sources of the energy, creativity and boldness that spurred these physical changes in our city. They come down to the financial prowess of Hong Kong and its people, particularly the common values that the latter espouse. Unlike our cityscape, these underlying strengths – rule of law, level playing field, convertible currency, freedom of speech, clean and efficient government and especially the resilience of Hong Kong people – have remained largely unchanged during the past two decades.

Hong Kong has witnessed momentous changes since the transition. Some exhilarating events, like the phenomenal rise in our national strength and our economic integration with the mainland, have bolstered our continuous prosperity. Some others have tested our steadfastness and ingenuity to their limits. Let me cite three episodes, among many others.

The Asian financial crisis came on the heels of our transition in 1997. Having sent away the speculators, we leveraged the aftermath to reform our securities and banking infrastructure, making Hong Kong the strongest global financial centre in the East Asian time zone, earning a triple A credit rating, ranking above most other mature financial markets. This warfare highlighted the heroism of Hong Kong people who supported without reserve the extraordinary measures taken by the government and the Monetary Authority at the time.

Many local people experienced negative assets as the economy receded and the property market imploded. Our industrialists and banking sector suffered also. Yet they persevered. With some underwriting by the government, they vanquished all hardships. Hardly any of them succumbed to the onslaught. Because of these structural reforms, we survived the subsequent global financial crisis occurring in 2008 with no real injury.

In early 2003, the Sars epidemic spread throughout Hong Kong for three months. Over 1,700 local people contracted the disease and 299 of them perished. The whole population fought gallantly, particularly those in our medical profession, some of whom made the ultimate sacrifice. The emergency measures taken during the epidemic and the cleaning-up exercise conducted afterwards took Hong Kong to a significantly higher level of public hygiene and general preparedness against similar outbreaks.