全球自由市场之港？Model economy’s quest to spread its riches

Hong Kong government officials covet the territory’s status as “the world’s freest economy”, an honour bestowed on it for 16 years running by the conservative, Washington-based Heritage Foundation.

香港政府官员梦寐以求的，是香港拥有“全球最自由经济体”的地位——保守的美国传统基金会(Heritage Foundation)已连续16年把这项称号授给香港。该基金会的总部位于华盛顿。

That designation tells only half the story. Hong Kong’s admirers like the fact the former British colony and free port, which reverted to Chinese sovereignty as a “special administrative region” in 1997, taxes very rich people at very low rates. Tax rates on salaries and company profits are set in the mid-teens, with capital gains and inheritances exempt entirely.

这项称号只反映出部分事实。香港的仰慕者们钟意的是，这个自由港对富人只征收很低的税。香港的个人所得税和企业所得税税率约为15%，资本利得和遗产则完全免税。香港以前曾是英国的殖民地，中国在1997年恢复对香港行使主权，把它设为一个“特别行政区”。

Hong Kong’s capital-friendly regime is just the tip of a much larger and more complicated social compact that, from another perspective, belies its reputation as a model free economy. The territory is much poorer than its impressive per capita GDP figure, $42,800 last year, implies. Half of all workers earn less than HK$9,750 per month – an amount equivalent to, in US dollar terms, just $15,000 per annum. In 2009 the average annual wage of Hong Kong’s 550,000 cleaners, who account for 15 per cent of the workforce, was a mere $7,960. As Leung Chun-ying, a member of the pro-Beijing establishment and a potential future Hong Kong chief executive, put it in a presentation to the Oxford & Cambridge Society earlier this year: “The trickle-down effect has not happened.”

香港的资本友好型制度，只是一项更宏大、更复杂社会契约的一小部分——换个角度来看，这项社会契约有负香港模范自由经济体的声誉。尽管香港去年的人均国内生产总值(GDP)达到令人惊叹的4.28万美元，但实际上香港要比这个数字所暗示的穷得多。半数工人的月收入不足9750港元（以美元计仅相当于年收入1.5万美元）。2009年，香港55万清洁工人的年均工资仅为7960美元，而他们的人数占香港劳动力总数的15%。正如梁振英(Leung Chun-ying)今年早些时候在香港牛津剑桥校友会(Oxford & Cambridge Society)的一次讲演中所说：“涓滴效应并没有出现。”梁振英是亲北京的香港当局的成员之一，也是未来特首的潜在人选之一。

For overseas professionals, this combination of low taxes and cheap labour (for everything from taxi rides to domestic help) make Hong Kong a kind of expat heaven. But the gulf between rich and poor has become an embarrassment and a political liability for the government. To the dismay of free-market purists, last week the territory introduced its first minimum wage, set at HK$28 ($3.55) an hour.

对海外专业人士来说，这种兼具低税收和廉价劳务（从出租车到家政服务等各种劳务）的环境，让香港在某种意义上成为外派人士的天堂。但对香港政府来说，富人和穷人之间的鸿沟已成为一件令人难堪的事情，也成为一项政治责任。令自由市场纯粹主义者失望的是，香港日前首次出台最低工资标准，定为每小时28港元（合3.55美元）。

To help people survive on such low wages, the government has for decades provided public housing to half the population, making it by far Hong Kong’s biggest landlord. The government-owned MTR Corp also runs what is arguably the world’s best underground and light-rail network, subsidised by property development rights the company is granted at the stations along its various lines.

为了帮助人们靠如此之低的工资养家糊口，香港政府数十年来已向半数居民提供公屋，这使得它成为香港迄今为止最大的房东。政府所有的港铁公司(MTR Corp)也经营着可谓全球最棒的地铁和轻轨网络。政府授予港铁各条线路沿线车站的物业开发权，港铁以此来补贴地铁和轻轨业务。

This is just the start of the Hong Kong government’s direct involvement in even surprisingly trivial areas of the economy. While the Chinese communist party made a conscious decision to retain control of the commanding heights of China’s economy – state-owned companies monopolise heavy industry, telecommunications and other strategic sectors – the territory’s supposedly laissez-faire government has a majority stake in Hong Kong Disneyland and, through its Trade Development Council, dominates the market for trade fairs and exhibitions.

这只是香港政府直接参与某些经济领域的开始，尽管这些经济领域可谓出奇的无足轻重。在中共有意识的决定保留对中国经济制高点（即垄断重工业、电信业或其它战略产业的国有企业）的控制权的同时，本应奉行自由放任主义的香港政府却持有香港迪斯尼乐园的多数股份，并通过香港贸发局(Trade Development Council)主导商交会和展览会市场。

Elsewhere in the world’s freest economy, de facto cartels operate. One unintended consequence of the Hong Kong government’s reliance on tightly controlled and lucrative land sales for revenue – rather than salary, profit and capital gains tax – has been the emergence of a half-dozen property companies that can compete at auctions for the territory’s most precious commodity.

“全球最自由经济体”的其它经济领域，是由事实上的卡特尔经营的。香港政府依赖严格受控且利润丰厚的土地出售——而不是对工资、利润和资本利得征税——来获取收入，无意中造就出6家能在拍卖会上竞购香港最宝贵商品的地产企业。

“Government land policies and high prices have concentrated power in the hands of a few large developers,” says Christopher Dillon, a Hong Kong property investor who has written a book about the market. “They time their land purchases and home sales for maximum profitability, contributing to market volatility.”

香港地产投资者克里斯托弗•狄龙(Christopher Dillon)曾著书论述香港楼市，他表示：“政府的土地政策以及高昂的地价，使权力集中到了少数几家大开发商手中。为了赚取最大利润，它们在购地和售楼上投机，加剧了市场动荡。”

The vast profits these companies have reaped from their commercial and residential property investments have in turn been the basis for their dominance of other areas of the economy, most notably ports, retailing and telecommunications.

这些企业从商业地产和住宅地产投资上斩获了巨额利润，继而以此为基础来掌控其它经济领域，尤其是港口、零售业和电信业。

Hong Kong’s retail market is such a stitch-up that not even as ruthless and efficient a competitor as Walmart has been able to get a look-in. And even if suspicions of collusion between the territory’s largest companies to exclude outside competitors could be proved, such behaviour would not be illegal in the absence of a competition law. But as with the plight of the working poor, this too has become an embarrassment. The government is currently drafting a competition law.

香港零售市场是如此的密不透风，即便像沃尔玛(Walmart)那样坚决和高效的竞争者也无法插上一脚。而且，即使有事实证明有关香港企业巨擎相互勾结排挤外来竞争者的猜测是正确的，这种行为也不算违法，因为香港根本就没有竞争法。不过，与低薪阶层的窘境一样，这种行为也已成为一件令人难堪的事。香港政府目前正在起草一部竞争法。

With so many rent-generating sectors effectively cornered by a handful of tycoons in their late 70s and early 80s, the profits their empires rake in are self-perpetuating and will soon be passed to a new generation. “The old man is in good health, but at his age anything can happen,” says a heir to one of the region’s great fortunes. The pampered sons and daughters of Hong Kong’s richest men, however, will struggle to take the family business in innovative directions.

如此之多的创租产业事实上仅由几个80岁左右的商界巨头把控，他们商业帝国所聚敛的巨额利润正在自我延续，并将很快传到新一代人手中。“老人家身体不错，但在他这个岁数，什么情况都有可能发生，”香港一位富豪的继承人说道。但是，香港富豪那些娇生惯养的子女们，很难把家族企业带上创新之路。

Hong Kong Inc is at its competitive and innovative best away from its cosy home market. An increasing number of the territory’s largest fortunes are being made in southern China, especially in Guangdong province’s Pearl river delta region. The territory’s entrepreneurs have thrived in a hypercompetitive environment characterised by tight margins and punishing product development cycles. The scale of the Pearl river delta’s export sector is difficult to capture, although one comparison quoted by Michael Enright, a regional development expert, is particularly telling. Shenzhen, a city of 10m people and a magnet for Hong Kong investment, exports almost as much as India ($162bn in 2009 vs $177bn) and boasts an economy that is one-third bigger than Vietnam’s (pop 90m).

香港企业最具竞争力和创新力的一面并不体现在其舒适的本土市场。香港所赚取的巨额财富，越来越多的由华南——尤其是广东省珠三角地区——创造。香港企业家在一种竞争极其激烈环境中大获成功，这种环境的特点是低利润率和艰辛的产品开发周期。珠三角出口行业的规模难以形象表述，但区域发展专家迈克尔•恩莱特(Michael Enright)引用的一项比较很能说明问题。拥有1000万人口、吸引大量香港投资的深圳市，出口额几乎与印度相当（2009年，深圳出口额为1620亿美元，印度为1770亿美元），经济规模比拥有9000万人口的越南大三分之一。

Techtronic Industries is an example of a Hong Kong-based manufacturing juggernaut. Headed by German and Hong Kong entrepreneurs, TTI was established in 1985 as a contract manufacturer with factories in the Pearl river delta. Contract manufacturing, however, can lead a company on a downward spiral; manufacturers’ margins are under constant pressure and most of a product’s value flows to its brand owner. So TTI began acquiring some of the world-famous power-tool and floor-care clients it used to supply, such as Milwaukee Tools, Ryobi, Homelite and Hoover.

由德国和香港企业家执掌的创科实业(TTI)就是香港制造业巨擎的一个例子。创科实业成立于1985年，最初是一家代工制造商，在珠三角拥有数家工厂。然而，代工制造有可能将一家企业带入恶性循环；制造商的利润率受到不断挤压，产品价值的大头落入品牌所有者囊中。因此，创科实业开始收购一些世界知名电动工具和地板护理企业，例如密尔沃基工具(Milwaukee Tools)、利优比(Ryobi)、康力(Homelite)和胡佛(Hoover)。它曾经是这些品牌的供货商。

“We bought [Hoover] for a small price because it was losing money, but we knew it was the best cleaning brand in the world,” says Joseph Galli, TTI chief executive. “The true profitability falls to those who supply the brand.” The company also opened what Mr Galli describes as the world’s “most modern power-tool plant” in Dongguan, a manufacturing centre north of Shenzhen, and reduced its product-development cycles from 10 months to eight, compared with an industry standard of one-two years. “I was at Black & Decker for 19 years and I’ve never seen that,” says Mr Galli. “[Product development] is so fast you can’t believe it. It reminds me of the high-tech industry.”

创科实业行政总裁约瑟夫•加利(Joseph Galli)表示：“我们收购（胡佛）时花的代价不大，因为它当时正在赔钱，但我们清楚，它是全球最棒的清洁品牌。让该品牌真正实现盈利的关键，还在于其供货商。”创科实业还在深圳以北的制造业中心东莞开设了工厂——加利称其为全球“最先进的电动工具厂”——并把产品开发周期从10个月缩短至8个月，而行业标准是一至两年。加利说：“我在百得(Black ＆ Decker)干了19年，从未见过这种情况。[产品开发]如此之快，令人难以置信，我不由想到了高科技产业。”

The Hoover acquisition saddled TTI with an unproductive operation in Ohio. After negotiations with the factory’s “enormous union” and the state’s governor, the facility was wound down but a research and development centre opened. “The business was losing $75m a year so the choice was no jobs,” Mr Galli says. “Now Hoover is growing so fast we are adding more [engineering R&D] jobs.”

收购胡佛令创科实业不得不接收俄亥俄州一家不盈利的工厂。在与该厂“庞大的工会”及俄亥俄州州长协商之后，该厂规模被逐步缩小，但创科实业在那里开设了一个研发中心。加利表示：“该厂当时每年亏损7500万美元，所以我们决定解聘工人。如今胡佛增长得很快，我们正在增加更多[工程研发]岗位。”

As a result, he adds: “We have 24/7 R&D. Right now America is asleep but China is working.”

他补充说，其结果是，“我们拥有了全天侯不间断的研发能力。现在美国那边正在睡觉，但中国这边正在工作。”