Hong Kong's First Leader Dies — Remembered for Betting on Tech Early

Tung Chee-hwa, who ran Hong Kong from 1997 to 2005 as its first chief executive after the handover from Britain, died last week. This weekend, former colleagues took to the airwaves to praise something they say history overlooked: his early bet on technology. At a time when most officials in the city were thinking about property, shipping and banking, Tung was setting aside land for a digital future.

Two of his projects still stand out. Cyberport, a campus on Hong Kong's south side, and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park in the New Territories were both championed by Tung. The idea was simple: give technology companies cheap space and a place to cluster, so talent would stay in the city instead of leaving. Tam Yiu-chung, who sat on Hong Kong's top advisory body during Tung's years, told a radio show that this is "exactly what we are doing now" — a sign of how far ahead Tung was.

Tung also looked north. He backed the Individual Visit Scheme, which let mainland Chinese tourists travel to Hong Kong without joining organised tours, and the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, a trade deal that lowered barriers between the two economies. Both arrived in 2003, right after the Sars outbreak had emptied shops and hotels, and Tam credits them with giving the battered local economy fast relief. That decision was not obvious at the time, when many officials focused only on Hong Kong's own backyard.

The lesson for anyone outside Hong Kong is straightforward. When a city bets on a new industry, the payoff can take 20 years — and the person who made the bet rarely lives to see the full result. Cyberport and the Science Park are now home to hundreds of startups, many working on artificial intelligence, fintech and biotech. Whether those bets paid off enough is still debated in Hong Kong. That Tung made them at all, before the dot-com bubble burst, is what his colleagues wanted remembered.