After his visit to Singapore last month for the Asean summit, Premier Wen Jiabao told Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen that Hong Kong "is facing very strong competition from Singapore" and that "the situation is pressing".
His observation is supported by the fact that Hong Kong was ranked below Singapore in 11 of 16 well-regarded surveys comparing the merits of cities around the world, the Sunday Morning Post has found.
In general, Hong Kong fared well in surveys measuring economic freedom, corporate governance and general well-being, but it fell behind Singapore in the quality of its business environment.
The Hong Kong government accords high priority to such rankings, at least when the city does well.
On January 16, the government issued a press release drawing attention to the city's top ranking in the Heritage Foundation's economic freedom index for the 13th consecutive year.
No press release was issued by the government when the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report saw Hong Kong slide from 10th to 12th place last month. At the same time, Singapore rose one place to seventh in the report.
The director of the Centre for Economic Development at the University of Science and Technology, Francis Lui Ting-ming, said Singapore was better than Hong Kong at attracting talent, but rankings did not necessarily paint the whole picture.
"Singapore does very good PR for overseas media, and their policies are aimed at attracting foreign companies, which is perhaps why they score higher in these rankings," Professor Lui said.
"But does Singapore have a Li Ka-shing or a Sun Hung Kai? Can you imagine them producing a Jimmy Lai Chee-ying?" he said.
In the other direction, Hong Kong swapped places with Singapore in CLSA's Asian corporate governance ranking, toppling the Lion City from top spot this year based on its willingness to pursue further reforms.
"Many of [Singapore's] disclosure standards are higher than those of Hong Kong," the report said, but its analysts felt Singapore had become complacent and deemed it had already reached acceptable standards.
"Hong Kong may not be attacking its problems with vigour or urgency, but at least it continues to progress," the report said. It also said Hong Kong remained ahead of Singapore in terms of shareholder rights, private enforcement and media freedom.
The most recent rankings, released by the Asian Development Bank on December 10, also showed Hong Kong's gross domestic product per capita as ranking below both Singapore and new economic powerhouse Macau. Hong Kong generates HK$202,941 in GDP per person a year, Macau generates HK$211,907 and Singapore HK$235,923.
However, Hong Kong's appetite for household consumption, at an average of HK$125,303 a year, makes it the best for household living standards in Asia.
All the ADB rankings were based on figures for 2005 and surveyed Asian countries only.
Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, an executive councillor and professor in the department of public and social administration at City University, said it was "dangerous to compare the performances of Hong Kong and Singapore simplistically".
"We are talking about two different governance traditions and two different political contexts," he said. "Hong Kong has always cherished minimum government intervention and Singapore a state-led developmental model."
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