Register a business in 15 minutes? Not in Hong Kong, thanks to old ways, red tape and vested interests
N. Balakrishnan says tech-savvy societies are revolutionising the way people live and work, yet Hong Kong, which prides itself as a business and financial centre, remains stuck with archaic, paper-based processes

Hong Kong need not fear HSBC choosing to keep its headquarters in London. After all, London is the financial capital of the world, with support services for international finance with more depth than New York, let alone Hong Kong. So a global bank choosing London over a city on the coast of China is understandable.
What Hong Kong needs to worry more about is the news that HSBC is rolling out voice recognition and touch security in the UK to replace six-digit passwords that can easily be hacked. Everyone’s voice is unique and the bank takes 100 “points” on first registration to identify an account holder. What is more, even the flu or a sore throat won’t affect these 100 points.
Since internet speed, consumer acceptance and density of banks or hardware are not an issue in Hong Kong, it must be legislation and other ‘soft’ business support services that are holding back progress
In the US, banks already have ATMs that can be operated using mobile phones, despite the fact that mobile phones in the US do not work as well as in Hong Kong. No doubt such services will eventually arrive here but it is surprising that banks have chosen bigger countries with more complex regulations to roll out these services rather than Hong Kong, which, as far as hardware is concerned, is the “mobile phone capital of the world”.
Since internet speed, consumer acceptance and density of banks or hardware are not an issue in Hong Kong, it must be legislation and other “soft” business support services that are holding back progress.
Let me cite a personal example of how far behind Hong Kong’s bureaucratic attitudes lag with regard to technology. A government department recently wrote to me to say that it would accept only a “wet” signature – that is, one signed using a pen and ink – for a certain document, rather than an electronic signature.
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