Monday 8th November 2010

Dear Reader,

NEW ARTICLE
Your ID number is not a password
There is a common misconception that HK identity card numbers are secrets, a misconception that Government is promoting by its policy actions, putting us on the road to increased abuse of the HKID and higher economic losses from fraud. To prevent this, the register of ID numbers and names should be published, after a transition to allow commercial abusers to stop abusing the ID for authentication. This article also looks at the unfulfilled potential of the Smart ID Card, including biometric authentication and electronic money. (8-Nov-2010)

RECENT ARTICLES
The Community Collusion Fund
We look at the numerous problems with Donald Tsang's proposed Community Care Fund. The boards of listed companies which support it either expect sufficient corporate benefit in return or are breaching their fiduciary duties. We call on Legislators to kill the CCF by vetoing the HK$5bn allocation and instead get the government to reform its welfare system using the normal budgetary process. (4-Nov-2010)

Hong Kong Land Lease Reform, Part 2
We advocate a rebalancing of HK's land lease system, reducing up-front premiums in exchange for a perpetual stream of future ground rents and addressing a number of festering problems simultaneously. We also suggest a Premium Release Scheme to return hoarded capital to the market, and PRS Bonds or HIPS (HK Income Protected Securities) to help finance it, providing a new long-term investment option for retirement funds. (1-Nov-2010)

Pass it on!
This free newsletter goes to over 20,000 practitioners, issuers, regulators and investors in Hong Kong's markets. If you enjoy it, then please invite a friend to find out what they are missing and subscribe!

Visit our archives, and do your homework before you invest.

Copyright notice
This e-mail and small extracts of any article on the site may be freely quoted in any other publication but ONLY if attribution is given to Webb-site.com.