MORE POWER FOR LESS PAY

STRAITS TIMES JAN 12 1999


HONGKONG -- Mr Alan Greenspan may have the power, but Hongkong's chief central
banker has the money. 

 The US Federal Reserve chairman, visiting Hongkong yesterday for a central
bankers' conference, is paid US$137,600 (S$230,411) a year. 

 But his host, Hongkong Monetary Authority boss Joseph Yam, earns an annual
salary of between HK$8 million and HK$8.5 million (between S$1.73 million and
S$1.84 million). 

 Yet while Mr Greenspan is responsible for the health of the world's largest
economy -- and indirectly the whole world's economy -- Mr Yam oversees the
almost automatic Hongkong currency board system that merely pegs the local
dollar to the US dollar. 

 Mr Yam's policy responsibilities are therefore quite modest by central
banking standards. 

 Mr Sin-ming Shaw, a columnist and one of the few Hongkong people ever to
raise the issue publicly, said: "Yam makes seven times Greenspan's salary.
It's ridiculous." 

 Mr Shaw, head of Shaw Investments, said: "I personally would be happy to take
over Joseph Yam's position at one-tenth the price and I'm sure a lot of others
would be, too." 

 But the government's argument is that it has to pay well to attract good
people into the public service.