The View | Hong Kong in danger of losing its renowned entrepreneurial spirit

Hong Kong, with the bellicose frivolity of senile and oblivious governments, is determined to resist any calls for change and commit even minor resources to economic transformation.

The Hong Kong government talks up an impressive public relations image about helping start ups and encouraging innovation. Despite its relentlessly cheerful tone and aggressively unthreatening aesthetics, the reality is that its bureaucrats staunchly protect the entrenched wealth in this city — property owners and tycoons with outdated policies.

The Post recently featured a story about three young Hong Kong entrepreneurs who decided to cross the border to set up business in the Qianhai free-trade zone in Shenzhen. One of them was rejected by the entrepreneur programmes at Cyberport and Hong Kong’s Science Park.

In Qianhai he was able to operate at a third of the cost of his Causeway Bay office of similar size. The Shenzhen market gave him access to a much bigger internet financing and the mainland market. And it has evolved a more supportive community of entrepreneurs unlike Hong Kong, which is dominated by speculators and punters who aren’t worth pitching to.

It is impossible for many young entrepreneurs to access Hong Kong government’s startup funds. Their requirements are all unrealistically high; in particular, they demand historical profits or too much up front capital or experience.Worst of all, the people reviewing them are government bureaucrats who are poorly equipped and too timid to make venture capital choices. Startups rarely make profits in their crucial early years so even tax breaks are useless.

Audacious entrepreneurs always manage to find solutions to bring their product to market and to find that next financing round. Leaving Hong Kong for Qianhai is just another path that they are forced to take, but it diminishes Hong Kong’s opportunity to reinvent itself.