Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Financial Secretary John Tsang's fifth and last budget of the current administration, delivered earlier this year, was a model of fiscal design and the envy of governments around the world.

Which other government can boast a surplus of HK$66.7 billion ($8.6 billion) against a forecast deficit of HK$8.5 billion for 2011-12 in a year of crisis in Europe and a global slowdown?

Indeed, which government, perhaps with the exception of Singapore, can claim fiscal and foreign exchange reserves equivalent to 35 percent of GDP, or 22 months of government expenditure? And which government can claim to have pure government debt, excluding statutory body debt, of less than 2 percent of GDP?