This report, just published by World Economic Forum, based in Geneva, has upset Hong Kong’s unelected top gun, Don Tsang. Hong Kong languish in 28th place, behind Malaysia and only just ahead of France.
The main damage was done in the “Public Institutions” category, where the Pearl of the Orient slumped on the back of problems with Hong Kong’s judicial independence (I was actually pleased to discover it had some) and intellectual property rights protection (ditto). Rather more predictable is the increase in what the Hong Kong Government refers to as “corruption” and, rather quaintly, “favouritism in government decisions”, twin boa constrictors which have been strangling competitiveness in China for longer than even the oldest veteran of the “Long March” would be able to remember.
You can see how well your country performed here.