Ambitious goals of think tanks in Hong Kong remain unfulfilled
The lofty goals of policy research institutes in Hong Kong remain unfulfilled with many rising or falling on the fortunes of politicians
When Christine Loh Kung-wai swapped her job as chief executive of think tank Civic Exchange for a post as undersecretary for the environment in September, she joined a rare breed - those who have served in both a think tank and the Hong Kong government.
It's not hard to explain why it's such a rarity. Few can match Loh's reputation in policy research, notably in the field of environmental protection, and the city's think tanks are too fragile, both politically and financially, to develop political talent.
For more than two decades, the vision of social scientists to develop think tanks in the city as hubs for policy research, and a still-more ambitious goal of establishing them as a knowledge-based industry, contributing to the local economy, remain unfulfilled. Instead individual think tanks tend to rise or fall based on the fortunes of particular politicians.
A case in point is the rapidly waning influence of the Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre, the favoured think tank of former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen.
The research centre was co-founded in 2006 by Tsang's closest allies - Norman Chan Tak-lam, now the chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and Anthony Wu Ting-yuk, a partner in accounting firm Ernst & Young, who now chairs the Hospital Authority.
Charles Ho Tsu-kwok, chairman of Sing Tao News, was the protector of the foundation. Lau Ming-wai, son of multimillionaire Joseph Lau Luen-hung and vice-chairman of Chinese Estates Holdings, was one of its major supporters.
Wu and Ho went on to be key supporters of Henry Tang Ying-yen in his doomed campaign to succeed Tsang.
