OUHK Testing and Certification Industry Summit (檢測及認證高峰會)

Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) is one of the supporting organizations of the “Testing & Certification Industry Summit” which was organized by The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) on 2 March 2011. I represented HKSQ to attend and summarized the summit for sharing.

Firstly, Prof. John Leong (President, OUHK) gave an opening speech. He said that OUHK would develop a new course to support testing and certification industry and it would be launch in April 2011.

Then Prof. KC Ho (Dean, School of Science and Technology, OUHK) introduced each speaker and their background.

Prof. P. C. Ching (Chairman of the Hong Kong Council for Testing & Certification) was the first speaker and his topic entitled "Prospect and Current Development of Testing and Certification Industry in Hong Kong".

Prof. Ching said Testing and Certification (T&C) Industry was one of the six economic areas where Hong Kong enjoyed clear advantages and had good potential for further development. Locally, T&C played an important role such as medical testing, food testing and construction materials testing. Moreover, it supported external trade for products manufactured in Pearl River Delta Region.

T&C Industry Profile was briefed and total employment was about 16000 (included 9100 professionals). The number of Accredited Laboratories (175), Inspection Bodies (20) and Certification Bodies (17) by HKAS were reviewed.

Total business receipted of T&C industry from private sector was HK$8 billion for 2008 and the distribution was shown below.

The prospects of T&C industry were:

i) Increasing awareness of quality and safety of products (Global trend)

ii) Major edges of the industry included good integrity and high international reputation, as well as, close to the manufacturing base in the Mainland.

The role of Hong Kong Council for Testing and Certification (HKCTC) was mentioned

Prof. Ching briefed the 3-year development plan.

One of Hong Kong government investments on T&C industry was to enhance the manpower by 40% in HKAS.

Then Prof. Ching described the four factors of production to enhance the competitiveness.

Lastly, Prof. Ching introduced the new arrangement to allow HKAS accredited laboratories in Hong Kong to participate the testing service for the China Compulsory Certification (CCC) system in CEPA Supplementary VII.

Dr. Roy C. P. Chung (Deputy Chairman of Hong Kong Industry Federation) was the second speaker and his topic was "The important of Testing & Certification for Hong Kong Industry and Economic Development".

Dr. Chung briefed the history of Hong Kong Industry Development. In the past, product needed for testing aboard (say EU) and the turnaround time was long. FHKI established a laboratory since 1963 to service local manufacturers. He encouraged us to determine Hong Kong standard which was recognized worldwide, then Hong Kong brand would be success.

The third speaker was Ir. Prof. Peter K. W. Mok (Chairman of Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency) and his presentation named "Challenge and Opportunity of Certification Bodies in Hong Kong".

Prof. Mok briefed the development of Certification Bodies (CB) which about 5% of the whole T&C industry.

He identified the external challenges such as competition from Mainland (operation cost) and from others (e.g. Singapore)

The he identified the internal problems CB faced. They were:
i) Local CB scale was small (Most of CB employee were less then 50.)
ii) No specific professional training for CB talent
iii) Lack of competence auditors
iv) The service scope coverage was not enough
v) Government support was needed.

Finally, Prof. Mok presented the prospect of CB development included Service Scope Extension, Matching International and China Development; and the most important was Integrity.

The last speaker was Ir. Victor Manuel Kuan (Director-General of Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Centre) and he shared Macau's experience.

Mr. Kuan briefed the industry in Macau from textile (Inspection) to service (Casino). He said Hong Kong and Macau were complementary in Testing and Certification Industry. He told us 橫琴 was a new area (3 times large than Macau) to be developed for different industries and it would be a new opportunity for T&C industry.

Q&A Session

There were more than 100 participants.

Group photo of all speakers were taken.

I took a photo with Dr. Lau and Dr. Eric Sze.

(Left: Dr. Eric Sze (Senior Accreditation Officer, HKAS); Dr. H.K. Lau (Assistant Professor, Engineering Sciences, School of Science & Technology, OUHK) and I)

OUHK building

Reference:
Bachelor of Science in Product Design, Testing and Certification: http://sct.ouhk.edu.hk/engsc/distance-learning/testing-certification/pdtc-aims/
HKCTC: http://www.hkctc.gov.hk/en/about.html
HKQAA: http://www.hkqaa.org/en_index.php
Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Centre: http://www.cpttm.org.mo/home_c.php
HKSQ Certification Scheme “Certified Laboratory Quality Specialist (CLabQS)”: http://www.hksq.org/cert_hksq_clabqs.htm .