Kapp said American companies usually don't study the plans, but the better
ones have someone - like a consultant or trade group - who does study it for
them. This is especially true of large food companies and firms involved in big
infrastructure projects, he said.
The five-year plan came up during a recent news conference
in the Macau with casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson, chairman and chief
executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp.
Sands executives cited the plan as they defended their intention to invest billions
in casinos, hotels and convention facilities in the former Portuguese enclave
on the mainland's southeastern coast.
"All the infrastructure they talk about are in these long-term plans,"
Adelson told The Associated Press in an interview. "Of course you have to read
them. Of course you have to pay attention. They set up infrastructure, trains,
utilities, water facilities, bridges, airports."
Arved von zur Muehlen, managing director for Greater China for the German
airline Lufthansa AG, said his company reads the report for clues about where
its customers might be going in China.
"Usually the companies investing in China react to the five-year plan, and we
react to how the companies are investing," he said.
The plans highlight Hong Kong's tricky relationship with
the mainland. When the former British colony returned to the mainland in 1997, it was allowed to keep its
capitalist ways and its legal system - one of the best in
Asia.
Close ties with the mainland are crucial for Hong Kong's success. Unlike
global financial centers like London, New York and Tokyo, this city doesn't have
a large domestic economy to back it up.
To best compete, it needs to link up with the mainland's economy. And it's
been doing that. Hong Kong companies are among the biggest investors in the
mainland and the city's stock market serves as a major fundraising platform for
mainland companies.
The Hong Kong Economic Journal, widely read by intellectuals and business
leaders, said in a recent front-page editorial that it's time for the city to
play a bigger role in writing the next plan. The paper warned that mainland
future financial reforms might erode Hong Kong's role as a global finance
center.
"Amid these big changes, if Hong Kong can't play a proactive role in
drafting its plans," the editorial said, "then the possibility of becoming
marginalized will become extremely big."
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