HK needs daring action plan

The Hong Kong government has established a blue-ribbon council, whose members include some of the best minds in business and academia, to address the economic problems created by the fallout of global credit crisis.

As an international financial center, Hong Kong is supposed to have taken a direct hit from the financial tsunami. But the damage so far has been limited to the stock market and the investment banking sector. Aside from the rumor-fed and short-lived run on a large local bank, the financial system of Hong Kong has remained unfettered.

Because of dwindling overseas orders, some Hong Kong exporters have either scaled back or closed down their manufacturing facilities in the Pearl River Delta region on the mainland. But unemployment in Hong Kong is not showing any sign of rising on a big scale.