the governor of HK, Donald is a puppet of Beijing.
nothing gets done without the approval of Beijing tacit or otherwise.
now that his term is up, whoever takes over from him, is not up to HKer to decide but Beijing.
at least for LHL,if he is not elected the MP of Ang Mo Kio, he won't smell the appointment letter for PM.
HK government is more lassie-faire, hands-off due the unique environment of HK society. HK society are more entrepreneur - HK SMEs outnumber SG many many times. HKers are more cunning, street smart due to years of dealing amongst themselves / amongst PRCs.
My xperience with HKers are, they are very piah. their PR skills is much much better and they can kill you without you knowing.
the flip side, nothing much gets done, due to apparent more democratic environment - a lot of bickering. You see that long-haired MP throwing eggs at Donald Tsang in parliament. Just an example of building the high speed railway from HK to Guangzhou, got approved / land acquisition after very long time.
business acumen / business environment / transport service / cultural / social activities wise, HK is much ahead of SG. But in terms of safety & security, we are still better.
and importantly, HK has the comfort / security blanket to suck the tits of Beijing if all else fail, SG? No tits to nurse us if we cannot manage on our own.
At the moment,S China provides the hinderland for HK for its manufacturing / service. But Shanghai is fast catching up in terms of becoming a financial metropolis and international city. In fact according to some, it has overtaken New York as the global city.
HK's future is not all that bright = but because of the entrepreneur spirit and years of laisse-faire attitude of the government, the people are more resilient than SG.
and yes, HK copied our CPF scheme.