Other problems for Hong Kong include a lack of highly skilled English-speaking labour, and government policies which the EIU said appear to favour some business tycoons and their companies instead of real competition.

BBC: Singapore tops Hong Kong for business

The abundant supply of skilled workers and English-speakers has attracted investments by Texas Instruments, Motorola, Lexmark and Intel.

FORBES: The Ronald Reagan of the Pacific

If they are not English speakers or skilled migrants, they must pass a course in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) which contains citizenship materials.

BBC: Theresa May

Not really, just evidence of the familiar problem of British skills shortages a problem so acute that many employers prefer to hire a worker who does not have English as a first language, in preference to a less-skilled native.

ECONOMIST: Employment

Not to be outdone by his French counterpart, on the other side of the English Channel, Henry VIII (1509-47) was a skilled practitioner of the sport and famously built a court at the Royal Palace of Hampton Court, which still survives today and is used for modern competition.

CNN: A short history of tennis: Henry VIII to Federer the great

But one thing India has in abundance is skilled human capital--after the U.S., the largest pool of English-speaking scientists and engineers in the world.

FORBES: Passage To India

Holiday said he told the local school district he would stay if he could use its facilities and its teachers to start a business providing English instruction to students in Asia where, according to Holiday, there aren't enough skilled language instructors, particularly in non-urban areas, to teach.

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