Smart card, dumb city: is Hong Kong laissez-faire, or just lazy?

What can you say about innovation and creativity in a city whose last really good idea was the Octopus card, introduced in 1997? Twenty years later, the iconic smart card may still be going strong, but city officials have yet to figure out how to deal with Uber, Airbnb and other aspects of the sharing economy. Their build-it-and-they-will-come approach to technological advancement has been a boon for already-rich property developers (note Cyberport and Science Park) but has done little to turn Hong Kong into the cutting-edge technology hub that was advertised.