Standing next to Gates, Hongkong Telecom chief Linus Cheung warned that Hong Kong must turn its current economic downturn to its advantage.

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Hongkong Bank aims to use that strategy in its drive for the high-end consumer market.

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Zeus Chen of Lehman Brothers says Hongkong Telecom is hard to beat.

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"These are not people dialing up to buy consumer products, " says Bob Carlson, chief of technical services at Hongkong Bank.

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Yet some of the deals in which British groups such as Swire and Hongkong Telecom, which is owned by Britain's Cable and Wireless, have sold stakes to Chinese groups look more like the results of greenmail than the formation of useful partnerships.

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