Hong Kong people have always been noted for their pragmatism. This means they have a keen sense of striking the balance between maximum results and minimum costs.

Such an attribute has prevailed throughout Hong Kong society. And it has proved to be most effective when it comes to economic integration with the mainland.

We can take comfort from the fact that Hong Kong has never built any "white-elephant" monstrosities in a bid to glorify its economic achievements. There was never a need for Hong Kong people to boost their ego by building a structure that they can claim to be the tallest in the region or, better still, the world.

Indeed, Hong Kong does not have the fanciest or fastest train, but its public transportation system is clean and efficient. Hong Kong has never claimed to be the region's high-tech capital, but its product design capability is streets ahead of many of its neighbours.

Hong Kong has long been derided as a cultural desert where art is treasured only for its resale value. And yet, Hong Kong-produced movies, television dramas and pop music have influenced Asian pop culture for decades.

Hong Kong's pragmatism can best be summed up by a well-reported quote from a former managing director of Hong Kong Land, the owner of nearly all the prime office buildings in the centre of the business district. When reporters questioned the rather controversial design of the company's newly completed office building, the unflappable executive replied: "The best designed building is the one that's fully occupied."

This was the same result-focused pragmatic approach that has enabled Hong Kong to take full advantage of the mainland's economic reform and opening in order to complete its transformation from a struggling low-cost manufacturing base to an international financial centre in just 25 years. In this process, Hong Kong contributed greatly to the rapid industrialization of the entire Pearl River Delta region, where thousands of factories, employing millions of workers, are either owned by, or manufacture under contract for, Hong Kong exporters.

During all that time, Hong Kong has never set itself up to compete with any city on the mainland. Neither has it gloated over the contributions it has made to the development of the mainland economy. That's because most Hong Kong people know deep down that businesses were willing to invest heavily on the mainland because they expected a return that could more than justify the risks they must take.

It is easy to understand why Hong Kong must maintain an adequate infrastructure so that it can continue to service the needs and requirements of the mainland's economic development. But the key word to keep in mind here is "adequate," which is ultimately determined by cost effectiveness and not by degree of grandeur in comparison to those on the mainland.

But this traditional sense of pragmatism is under attack from some short-sighted and shallow-minded politicians who profess the perverted view that Hong Kong must do everything comparable to the mainland or risk falling behind. Their objections to the proposal to open a second rail link to Shenzhen are based on the fact that speed of the train needs to be reduced because it will be sharing the same tracks with local trains.

Their common argument is that the speed of the train in the Hong Kong segment must not be slower than that in the mainland segment. And that's that. These chest-thumping politicians have reduced an important decision on infrastructure development to a trivial game of one-upmanship. To them, no practical reason is needed to justify spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a new railway track so that trains can maintain the same speed in the much shorter leg of the journey in Hong Kong as that on the mainland.

This is simply madness. At a time when Hong Kong's relevance to the mainland's economic development has been brought into question, it is all the more important for Hong Kong people to remember and cherish the fundamental values on which its unique social and economic structure is built.

Hong Kong must not engage in senseless competition with Guangzhou to be the so-called "dragon head" of the Pearl River Delta region, nor should it be obsessed with the threat from Shanghai as a rising financial centre. If Hong Kong people can continue to take a pragmatic approach to economic integration with the mainland, they have nothing to fear.

Email: jamesleung@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/23/2006 page4)