Level of Development in Hong Kong - Essay Example

ANALYSIS OF THE LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT IN HONG KONG, CHINA Why Hong Kong At the age of five, my sole ambition in life was to become a Kung Fu master, having been inspired by the awesome legend Jackie Chan. At that time, I had no idea what was his native country, my interest being in his impressive on-screen stunts. Somewhere along the way, my career ambitions changed, but my fondness for Chan stayed, and in the process fostering one for his home country Hong Kong as well. Introduction Hong Kong makes a captivating case study in tracing the economic development of an economy, which in under a century has been transformed into an industrialized and 'developed' one. What factors have contributed to her rapid growth Hong Kong has been under Chinese, British and Japanese dominion at select points in her history, all who played a part in the turn her developmental growth would take. It is of fascinating to see how Hong Kong has risen to become an economy that is now ranked along with the big wigs of fully developed countries. challenges faced by Hong Kong in her attempts at development Development in this context is the maximum utilization of the resources within a given area or country(Haq, 1995). There are multiple universally accepted indicators on how well developed a country is which can either be based on economic factors such as GDP, GNI and PPP, or socio-indicators such as availability and efficiency of public services, provision of health services, accessibility of education among others (Haq 1995). Over the past century to date, Hong Kong has come a long way, for in the nineteen thirties she would have been categorized as an underdeveloped economy. By the start of the Second World War, Hong Kong was still a British colony. On the 25th December 1941, Japan seized her, and occupied the country until August 1945. At the time of the occupation, the Hong Kong economy suffered a great setback. There was rapid inflation and severe food shortages since the Japanese were preserving food for their army. In this harsh environment, there was little economic growth fostered, with advances coming almost to a standstill. In addition, the official currency, the Hong Kong dollar was outlawed and replaced by the Japanese Military Yen. By 1945, the population of Hong Kong had shrunk by half, down front the pre-occupation number of 1.5 million inhabitants (Tsang, 2004). In recent years, Hong Kong has faced challenges and drawbacks at a national level that have had negative impacts on her economy. In 2003, there was an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) which led to a drastic decrease in the number of international tourists and a fall in the price of property by 66%.. The bird flu pandemic (H5N1), which had broke out on a full scale around the same time, but had been around for years led to the loss of poultry and chicken by the millions(BEAPA,2008). Another recent setback to the growth of the Hong Kong economy was the Asian financial crisis that occurred between the late part of 1997 and earl 1998. There was a collapse in the stock markets of some south East Asia, Hong Kong being one of them leading to a sharp depreciation in the value of their currencies. These had been preceded by the devaluation of the currencies of the economies involved. It took a while for Hong Kong to regain her momentum from this impediment (Gary,2003). factors that have worked in Hong Kong's favor towards development There are several factors that have fostered Hong Kong's rapid economic growth, one being that the Hong Kong market is friendly and liberal, thus she is quick to adapt to changes in international marketing trends. Her banking system has a rock solid base, she carries minimal public debt and sufficient foreign exchange reserves. These factors are coupled with a strong legal system and a staunch stand taken in fighting corruption (BEAPA, 2008). She has benefited from China's joining the World Trade Organization in that the latter markets her as a growing commercial hub with an amiable business environment, reasonable taxes, a sound legal system and ample infrastructure. China promotes Hong Kong's Pearl River Delta as the gateway into China. In exchange, Hong Kong goods are imported into China with no tariffs charges under the 'Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement' (CEPA). Hong Kong has a large industrial sector the largest proportion being that of textile and garment manufacture. After Japan was expelled in 1945, there was a restructuring of the economic set up. The textile industry was relatively new, and its growth was spurred by cheap labor since there were Chinese refugees who were escaping from the communist regime coming in from the mainland( Gary, 2004). Analysis of Hong Kong's level of development using Development Indicators Hong Kong can be termed as a developed country in its own right because it makes the cut on the markers that are applied to qualify an economy as being 'developed'. The measures of development that I will apply to justify that it is indeed a developed countries are an examination of its Gross National Income per capita (GNI), Gross National Income per capita-Purchasing Power Parity (GNI-PPP), her Human Development Index (HDI), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gender Disparity Index(GDI). The Hong Kong economy has been growing steadily over the years, indicated by the market capitalization of listed companies, which, according to data provided by World Development Indicators Database (WDID, 2008) was 562.4 as a percentage of the national GDP. WDP data also provides statistics that show Hong Kong has a sound infrastructure, since by 2005 100% of the roads were paved. Further, Hong Kong had in 2006, 11% of its manufactured exports being high technology exports (WDID, 2008). On the global level WDID (2008) data shows that Hong Kong has a foreign direct investment and net inflow of 42,891 million US$ in 2006. There is minimal reliance on foreign aid since by 2004, the official development assistance stood at only US $4 million. The Human Development Report for 2008 compiled by the United Nations Development Program(UNDP) report shows that Hong Kong has the one of the highest life expectancy at the time of birth marked at 81.9 years, ranked second on their index after Japan (HDR 2008). Her Gross Domestic Product GDP per capita in US$ was 206.7 billion US$, while the GDP growth was given to be 6.4%. The World Bank gave Hong Kong's Gross National Income (GNI) per capita in 2007 to be 31,610US$ which was an increment from the figures in 2006 which indicated that the GNI was 29, 530US$. According to data provided by the world bank the Gross National Income-PPP for the year 2007 in Hong Kong was 305.09 billion US$ , a rise from the year 2005 when it stood at 273.4 billion US$. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the 2007/2008 Human Development Index (HDI) for Hong Kong, China is 0.937, which puts it in 21st place out of the 177 nations ranked. The HDI was based on data gathered in 2005 from looking at Hong Kong's life expectancy at birth which was 81.9years, the percentage of combined primary, secondary and tertiary gross enrollment(76.3%) and the GDP per capita which came to 34, 833US$ (Human development Report, 2008). Over the past decade, Hong Kong has shown a great propensity towards embracing what is becoming a global culture by breaking into the international cinema scene. The Hong Kong cinema has been around since the beginning of the 20th century. She is the home of box office stars such as Jackie Chan who is also a star of Cantotop, and Chow Yun-Fat. Why the disparity between Indicators and which indicator is most accurate In the measure of development, the most comprehensive indicator for Hong Kong in my opinion is the human development index (HDI). As noted by Haq (1995), this index has raised controversy because human development has several facets and graded on different value scales within different cultures. However, it is the most balanced. The basic human needs in today's world cover food and clothing, security and literacy. All these are accounted for by the HDI (Cleveland, 2008). Taking the non-composite measures of development is implausible because they may not always indicate what the actual situation is. For example, Hong Kong has a low percentage of her population making up the agricultural work force. This would put her high on the scale of developed countries, if one does not factor in that Hong Kong has only five percent of arable land. The greatest disparity, though, is seen when looking at Hong Kong's HDI and GDI. While according to the UNDP's HDI fact sheet Hong Kong is ranked at number 21 worldwide, she is ranked a dismal 92. The percentage of girls to that of boys who enroll at the secondary and tertiary level of education is 92.7, giving her a ranking of 149 out of 194. This indicates that although Hong Kong is considered a country with high human development, there is a yawning gap between the opportunities available to men and those that women can get (Human development Report, 2008). However, this does not detract from hong kong's overall level of development. It indicates that she should work at narrowing down the gaps between genders by providing equal learning and employment opportunities for the sexes. Why there is such a gap, in my opinion, and as haq (1995) agrees is that the position of the woman in traditional Chinese society was cut out as domestic and this mind frame has not changed. The twentieth century was one of revolution for Hong Kong, with immense change being witnessed not only in its economic standing but also in its cultural and political arenas as well. The process Hong Kong now, in the 21st century can take its place in the developed nations of the world. On all levels, be it literacy, technology, health services, infrastructure and industrialization, Hong Kong has made her bones. Bibliography Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (2008) Hong Kong Last retrieved on 13th November from http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2747.htm Buckley Roger (1997): The Road to 1997 Cambridge University Press Cleveland C.J (2008): Human Development Index:Sustainable Development Last retrieved on 13th November from http://www.eoearth.org/article/Human_Development_Index Haq Mahbub Ul (1995) Reflections on Human Development Oxford University Press London Tsang Steve (2007): A Modern History of Hong Kong I.B. Taurus Publishers United Nations Development Program(2008) Human Development Reports- Country Fact Sheets Last retrieved on 13th November from http://hdrstats.undp.org/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_HKG.html Urbi Garay (2003) The Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 And the Behavior of Asian Stock Markets. B>Quest online Journal. Last retrieved on 13th November from http://www.westga.edu/bquest/2003/asian.htm The World Bank (2008) Key Development Data and Statistics Last retrieved on 13th November from http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/DATASTATISTICS/0,,content World Bank(2008) World Development Indicators Database: Reports . Last retrieved on 13th November from http://ddp-ext.worldbank.org/ext/ddpreports/ViewSharedReport http://nrcw.nic.in/statistics%20tables/gender-development-index.html Read More