The World Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday released the 2013-2014 Global Competitiveness Report, which remains unchanged for the top three economies, with Switzerland at the helm for the fifth time, and Singapore and Finland in second and third respectively. Hong Kong has moved up two spots from ninth to seventh. The new ranking is certainly encouraging progress, but the reality is Hong Kong still trails Singapore on the prestigious chart, which indicates the SAR continues to enjoy its advantage in financial market development and modern infrastructure, but still has some way to go in economic structure transformation and long-term planning.

Singapore has been able to remain near the top in recent years without the privilege of having the vast mainland market to fall back on as Hong Kong does, mainly because it has been focusing on long-term development, whereas Hong Kong has not been able to carry out any economic and livelihood-related policy without political ambush or other obstacles. If Hong Kong wants to do better in economic development it must clear away the hurdles created by wanton politicization of everything so that we can focus on eliminating shortcomings and improving competitiveness.

The WEF report acknowledges that Hong Kong is well ahead of other economies in financial market and infrastructure development but lacks in areas such as macro-economy, science and technology and innovation, which means the city owes its higher ranking mainly to "last capital".

The truth is, Hong Kong did have long-term development plans, such as the North East New Territories Development Programme, which is quite similar to Singapore's housing development scheme. But while Singapore has been able to execute its long-term development plans relatively smoothly, Hong Kong's efforts have run into vicious political disruption by the opposition camp in recent years. Hong Kong society needs to realize the opposition camp is not interested in solving problems when it turns everything into political issues, because its real aim is to cripple the SAR government. People from all walks of life should join hands in defeating the political troublemakers to clear the way for better economic development.

This is an excerpted translation of a Wen Wei Po editorial published on Sept 5.

(HK Edition 09/06/2013 page9)