It's time to rebuild Hong Kong's spirit of optimism, says corporate veteran

In today's Moving Forward, our final one in the year-long series, CARLYE TSUI WAI-LING, a veteran in corporate governance, offers her views on Hong Kong's situation after the failure to achieve electoral reform last summer. Tsui also talks to Oliver Chou about what the government and individuals need to do to raise their competitiveness from a business standpoint.

It is not the end of the world. While some people say that it is an outcome of loss for all, I think in this round, nobody won. It was just one episode in the long journey of political evolution, which is a continual process for every jurisdiction and indeed for human civilisation.

Some called the right to nominate the chief executive candidates genuine universal suffrage. But is that the absolute answer to everything? There is no single model to success. China, in its single-party political setting, has managed to advance quickly in economic progress within the last three decades. It is a development model different from that in the Western world.

Hong Kong has been an economic miracle in history. I am sure that Hong Kong people working together can create a political miracle, too. However, there is no immediate fix. We are faced with a long and continuing journey.