[2] As head of the agency, he became involved in Harbour Fest, an event to promote Hong Kong in the aftermath of the SARS outbreak in 2003 which became a topic of controversy due to its cost over-runs.

[4] He got first stuck in Bangkok, where he worked for several months officially as a "secretary" in a certain "Atlanta Club", which was in fact a low-budged guesthouse in Soi 2, Sukhumvit Road, and had originally been registered as a Hotel until 1968.

Rowse wrote his first articles and letters during this time for English language Thai newspapers and was also a proof-reader for Max Henn, a well-known German entrepreneur with a fake PhD, who was the founder of this guesthouse and himself an author of numerous political comments for the then newly founded English-language daily The Nation.

He recounts in an interview with HK Online that upon his arrival, he lived in a 36 square feet (3.3 m2) room in an apartment shared with three Indonesian Chinese families.

[2] As head of the agency, he became involved in HarbourFest, an event to promote Hong Kong in the aftermath of the SARS outbreak in 2003 which became a political scandal.

[8] In the aftermath, Rowse was held responsible for failing to ensure that InvestHK critically examine the HarbourFest budget, and fully and adequately advise the working group on the finances.

[10] Columnist Jake van der Kamp felt that Rowse had been let down by Donald Tsang, whose responsibility as Chief Secretary it ultimately was to oversee the Harbour Fest expenditure.

[12] The judge found[1] there to have been a breach of the rule of fairness: as the threshold of the burden of proof was set too low, the committee's findings should not have been relied upon by the Secretary for the Civil Service.