Planning, health, zoning and hawker laws have seen the demise of the dai pai dong, the cooked food stall, in recent years. Maybe we think that we are too grown up for street food. The stark white walls and tiled floors of the markets containing what food halls we have left give the impression that one is eating inside a toilet rather than near the most magnificent harbor in the East.

Hong Kong people rarely experience the pleasure of Al Fresco dining these days; something that is cheap, easy and a lot of fun. It is very different in Singapore. Chairs and tables spill out into the streets - yes, onto public land - creating an interesting and vibrant street community. Of course, the air is much cleaner in Singapore but that is because their emission control is tighter. As a very long-term Hong Kong resident, I have always met every mention of Singapore with the sound of a spittoon ringing with a well-aimed shot. However the Lion City is now a big global center, hosting a highly competent, English and Chinese speaking, multi-cultural population in relative wealth. Their government has been very aggressive in targeting Hong Kong and taking business away that would naturally come here.

Restoring the humble dai pai dong could be the start of a new era for Hong Kong. It could generate creativity, more mixing of ideas as people go out and, er, mix. It would make Hong Kong cool again instead of being a place where the biggest entertainment is walking around the nearest mall. Hot outside for six months a year? Try Singapore's 30 C, 24/7. No one seems to complain there, especially in front of a condensing beer bottle.

Dai pai dong enable the young and old to mix. You don't need bookings so you don't have to plan, you can get an infinite variety of food and drink, and it would add character to our rather boring environment. It is not outside the bounds of possibility to ensure that health and safety aspects are dealt with. External electrical power and vermin suppression are well-known technologies.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle is the faceless bureaucrats, the very people whose very being is the antithesis of 'Cool Hong Kong'. We have become too legalistic. The instant a table strays onto the pavement, the police are called and the restaurant is cautioned. The street culture of Singapore should be the street culture of Hong Kong. Sadly, they are cool and we are not. And we think that we are the epicenter of free enterprise and they are a paternalistic Toytown, with many rules and many fines.

There is, of course, a fantastic area immediately available as a community and cultural center for Hong Kong's blue-sky food area and that is the dull area of red brick and wasteland north of the City Hall and the old Star Ferry. This stretches past the new Government Offices all the way to Wan Chai - an enormous expanse of what has been promised to the people of Hong Kong for a decade as open space. It is currently occupied by the newspaper and magazine distributors who repack their bundles of newspapers on this land - government land - leaving paper, ties, old wooden pallets and binding machines on some of the richest land in the world.

Much better to have a dai pai dong using this dead space. Along the whole of the glorious vista of Hong Kong Island, from Kennedy Town to North Point, there are but two waterfront eating establishments - and one of these is the Yacht Club, which needs to be near water!

The point about dai pai dong is a serious one; that the government needs to concentrate more fully on the prosperity and good humor of the people of Hong Kong and less on rules, regulations and making the playing field attractive for all comers. The last 12 months has seen a good start in terms of cooling the property market, keeping property priority for committed HK residents, and in pursuing measures to alleviate the poverty of the elderly.

Hong Kong needs to look more at the Singapore model of business development and insist that business understands that to have the privileges of location next to the mainland, low taxes, the rule of international law and an educated, hard-working population; global corporations must give back to Hong Kong. We can no longer do it by persuasion alone; it is now at the stage of regulation or legislation. This would nudge more than prescribe but would nevertheless require businesses to become more pro-Hong Kong, making us a global hub rather than the branch office that we are too often. Government must develop policies that deliberately place Hong Kong into the position of the world's third major global city - after New York and London. Because even for global CEO's it is fun to eat in a dai pai dong.

The author is CEO of Port Shelter Investment Management, a pioneer of investment management in Asia, and has lived in HK for 44 years.

(HK Edition 01/24/2014 page9)