(FORTUNE Magazine) – As the most powerful woman in Hong Kong, Lydia Dunn, 48, has a lot to lose when that city reverts to Chinese sovereignty in nine years. Is she worried? Not to hear her tell it: ''I see 1997 as a year of tremendous opportunity,'' she says. ''I'm very optimistic about what will happen to Hong Kong.'' Dunn sits among the top leaders of the British crown colony's political and financial world. As chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, she charts the course that has led Hong Kong's export-based economy to a 13.7% real growth rate in the past two years. As senior member of Hong Kong's Executive Council, Dunn has the governor's ear as the council's highest- ranking adviser from the private sector. As a director of John Swire & Sons Ltd. and head of its foreign trade operations, she runs one of the Pacific % Rim's most prosperous exporting companies, but then she built the company's exports to the U.S. almost single-handedly. In her spare time, Dunn, the Berkeley-educated daughter of a prosperous Cantonese family, serves as a director of Hongkong & Shanghai Bank and Cathay Pacific Airways. All of which has led the British press to tout her as a future governor or high-level elected official when Hong Kong starts to phase in a popularly elected legislature in three years. Will Dunn heed that call? ''Politics are sometimes satisfying, but it's difficult to say what my role will be in the future,'' she says in her clipped British accent. ''When we revert to Chinese sovereignty, we will have the world's biggest market in our backyard. Besides, we have something the Chinese want.'' She's referring to banks, capital, and communications systems. Just who's going to take over whom?