Hong Kong's lack of a clear cultural policy will create a bleak future for its artists because the "millions of dollars'' the government gives out to develop the sector raises questions over whether they are really investments for the long term, according to Taiwan's former minister of culture.

University of Hong Kong visiting professor Lung Ying-tai, who established Taipei's cultural affairs bureau in 1999 and served as its director until 2003, said the ``rubber stamp'' consultation process on projects such as the West Kowloon development has hindered the city's long-term potential to be a cultural hub.

``Hong Kong has never seriously thought about what the place should become. It has never really developed a well thought-out and well-researched cultural vision for itself,'' she told The Standard in an interview Tuesday.

Lung made the remarks before the third of a series of forums from the ``Rethinking Hong Kong Lecture Series,'' entitled ``What's Wrong with Our City.''

The university forum was addressed by Lung and three leading urban development and culture experts from the mainland and Japan.

Liang Congjie and Catherine Xia, Beijing cultural heritage protectionists who have worked on the preservation of the capital's diminishing numbers of hutongs, or traditional family houses, and Yukio Nishimura, a professor of urban engineering at the University of Tokyo, spoke about how to create urban planning visions that preserve and create cultural heritage rather than let it go to waste.

In the interview, Lung said Hong Kong's commercially focused urban planning was apparent in the consultation process and goals for the West Kowloon project.

``[Government officials] are aware that the creative industry is something that can bring in money and prestige, and how to create income through culture and prestige is to build hardware,'' she said. But, ``so far you don't hear from the government what [its] cultural vision is.''

That is at least partly because the public sector does not perform scientific surveys or analyses of cultural projects in other parts of Asia, she said, adding that the private sector has for years visited Taipei to view its cultural infrastructure.

Nevertheless, members of government-led planning boards are not particularly aware of what is going on in similar cultural hub cities such as Seoul and Busan in South Korea and Taipei.

That raised an issue unique to Hong Kong, that it does not properly seek the views of the public, a hangover from colonial days.

``Whenever there is a problem and Hong Kong needs to be informed or needs advice, they do not contact their own specialists in Hong Kong, they will go to London, Sydney or Melbourne,'' she said.

Without this kind of study or research and without having a mechanism that allows the people to come up with a cultural vision, Lung said, the result is the government views a large piece of land only in terms of its commercial vitality, not, for instance, in terms of starting arts training at the primary-school level.

``All [their] logic comes from prestige and economy,'' she said, ``not from long-term investment in planning for quality of life and the quality of the citizens in terms of their understanding of the humanities and arts.''

She speaks from firsthand experience. As Taipei's first cultural affairs director, she noticed that Hong Kong had ``withdrawn from any official contact with the Taipei government'' after the handover.

``The Hong Kong government has never had any contact with me,'' she said. ``It's a new ministry of culture, it's the first one in the Chinese-speaking world and nobody bothered, nobody made any contact at all.''

Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho was serving as a member of a cultural committee before he took up his post. In an effort to create discussion about culture and heritage, Lung invited him to an exchange for government and the private sectors, but nothing happened. She says he has never approached her in the two years that she's been in Hong Kong.

Whether Hong Kong's perception of developing a cultural vision will change in the long or short term could become a growing concern for local artists. There is already an uproar over Acting Chief Executive Donald Tsang's insistence on a canopy for the West Kowloon project.

And the noise from disagreements over decisions about West Kowloon, said Lung, ``is so loud that it's [putting pressure on] the government to kind of listen, and it's brand new and this is a wonderful beginning.''

Speaking from her experience in setting up the bureau, Lung offered hints on how to build a long-term strategy for arts development in the city.

``I have to have a 50-year plan, meaning, how can I make my artists, musicians, writers, really raise their level so that they are competitive in international standards and they are also recognized by the international critics. ``I also have to put artistic education of the young on top of the priority list because I do want my population to be artistically capable, and this kind of thing is not [in Hong Kong]. It is lacking. It's very superficial.''