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Putting politics aside, when it comes to economic competitiveness and wealth creation we could do a lot worse than pay attention to Hong Kong's richest man, Li Kai Shing.迷你倉 For the past few months Mr. Li has been making it known that he is less than enamored with Hong Kong's economic performance. After watching and sometimes fighting with Mr. Li's empire for many years, I can assure all that his complaints are much more than just a rich tycoon whining for greater density zoning for his property projects. Mr. Li is a Hong Kong man, and that means he is a competitive man. He invests all over the world but these days he is not investing in Hong Kong. When an investor of his stature turns away from us it is not beneath anyone to ask why and try within reason to bring him back. We are lucky that Mr. Li has not slinked off into the night. Quite the opposite, he has held a parade. In a very public manner he has quite smartly locked on to an indisputable fact: Sometime around 2009 the 5.2 million people of Singapore propelled their GDP past ours of 7.1 million people.Tiny and boring Singapore, the butt of many sophisticated Hong Kong elites jokes, now boasts a bigger economy than ours. In fact according to the World Bank the Lee Kwan Yew fiefdom has continued to whip us; in 2010 Singapore’s GDP was a strong USD$274 billion versus our USD$263 billion. There is only one score that matters in sports, the final one; one vote that counts in politics, the election; and one number that says it all in economies, GDP. All else is crying over split milk. Hong Kong is blessed as the gateway for China but we have squandered away this geographic advantage by becoming indolent to international tax competition thus letting a "one stop-light" country like Singapore eat our lunch. Singapore has been on a steady march of lower taxes, business incentives, and deregulation for 20 years. In those same 20 years, we managed to turn our old airport, with 320 hectares of the most valuable harbor front property in Asia, into a big ugly cruise ship terminal that deposits tourists iself storageto an old industrial district. Tax rates in Singapore still range above those in Hong Kong and they have that dreaded GST. But with the sole exception of GST, Singapore has cut significantly both its individual and corporate taxes, with their current corporate tax rate being 17% versus our 16.5%. Combine these with aggressive tax incentive schemes for businesses to re-locate to Singapore, there is little doubt that Hong Kong is the more expensive tax jurisdiction for corporations. On top of our shrinking tax advantages, we have a government and its opposition vying to outdo each other in socializing the economy. From the silly new poverty index to a democratic opposition that sees business as an enemy, the trend ahead is unmistakable: less economic freedom and greater burden on business. What to do? Well we might ask Li Kai Shing to show us the way. But if that is unacceptable for so many then why not try a few things on our own. First, let us cut taxes. We already have about HKD$800 billion in fiscal reserves, or more than two years’ worth of government expenditure, so we have plenty of room to taper revenue intake. Drop corporate taxes to 10% and personal income taxes to 13%. I will not bore you with that math, but after these cuts we still score a surplus based on 2013 numbers. Secondly, let us open up more land; allow more conversions from industrial to residential with existing buildings, and get rid of that land wasting village house policy in the New Territories. A ten-story building in Tai Po or Sai Kung is not the end of the world. Li Kai Shing often provokes a knee jerk response for many in Hong Kong, but his assertion that we are a less competitive city than we once were is not an opinion but a distasteful fact. We are now second to Singapore. Mark Simon first lived in Hong Kong from 1992 to 1995. Since 2000 he has been an executive with the Next Media group in Hong Kong. He has written on free trade in the Asian Wall Street Journal, IHT, SCMP, and various international policy journals.We are now on Facebook .facebook.com/Next2ndOpinion迷利倉