[richrichie]

Hong Kong used to be pretty good. Government services were quite efficient. Business friendly. Excellent healthcare. Low taxes. Low crime rate. All of Singapore's positives minus the negatives. Not sure how it is these days.

[throwaway2037]

I would say from personal experience in Hongkong, that during the transition from a multi-party democracy to a single party state, the gov't services (minus the police and protest-related judges/courts) still remains excellent. The day to day workings are still extremely functional and efficient.

That said, the excitment about "low taxes" in Hongkong is mostly misguided. Yes, the max is 15% of your total income, but you basically get nothing except an (admittedly world-class) international airport and metro system. Public health care? You will never use it. You wrote: "Excellent healthcare". Sure, the private hospitals where your private health care insurance pays for services are excellent. Public schools? You will never use them. Public pension (retirement)? What a laugh -- you will be poor. Even the police are very lazy unless they are already present when the crime occurs. One weird bright spot: Public housing is very decent, but again, you will never use it. So really, what are you getting for 15% tax rate? Not much. If you are upper middle class and above, and are comfortable to watch elderly people in your neighborhood collect aluminium cans or cardboard for recycle-for-cash, then you will be fine paying for these essential life services from your handsome earnings. However, you will be surrounded by many very low income people. It is not a low tax paradise. My motto: "Hongkong isn't rich, but rich people do live there."

An anecdote about gov't staff efficiency: I will never forget the day that I applied for an international driver's license. I handed over my regular, local (HK) driver's license to the staff. He said nothing, but began to frantically fill forms at his desk. After about a minute, I was confused and asked, "Is there an issue?" "Oh nothing too big. Your [Chinese] name was changed, but you never applied for an updated driver's license. I have filled all the forms for you. You only need to sign here." The craziest part: On paper (if I recall correctly), there are relatively draconian rules about updating your driver's license in X days if your name or address changes.

EDIT

You wrote:

    > Low crime rate.

To be clear, all of northeast Asia has very low crime rates: Mainland China, China, Macau, Hongkong, Taiwan, South & North Korea, and Japan. This is a complex issue that could be the subject of multiple PhDs. I doubt it has anything to do with a high quality police force.