The Pulse：Competition Ordinance, discussion with CEO of Competition Commission, Stanley Wong, Expr

Have you ever tried getting through a day without giving a single cent to any of Hong Kong’s biggest companies? So much is dominated by the big conglomerates which control the power, telecommunications and transportation markets and then there are the food and medicine conglomerates squeezing out smaller businesses. The Consumer Council proposed a competition law back in 1996. However the Competition Ordinance was only made law three and a half years ago, and it only came into full effect this Monday. It seemed as though impact was immediate because last weekend shoppers found chain stores slashing prices on certain products. With us in the studio is the Chief Executive Officer of the Competition Commission, Stanley Wong.
Time is money, as the saying goes. But is slashing a journey to 48 minutes worth $90 billion dollars or maybe HK$100 billion?
48 minutes is the time it should take to travel from Hong Kong to Guangzhou on the new Express Rail Link. Although the trains are planned to be traveling at 200 km per hour, the construction of the Hong Kong section has hardly been moving at high speed. Since it began in 2010, it’s been dogged by controversies concerning delays and over escalating costs as well as allegations of poor management. Now, taxpayers may have to foot the bill for an extra HK$19 billion. And the project is set to affect the seemingly increasingly moth-eaten Basic Law, with a plan to allow mainland officials to be stationed in Hong Kong at terminal check-points, enforcing mainland laws.