Manufacturers Forum - Challenge & Achievement 2013

The Manufacturers Forum - Challenge & Achievement 2013 was jointly organized by Department of System Engineering and Engineering Management of City University of Hong Kong (SEEM, CityUHK), Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering Section (MIES), The IET Hong Kong, and MILES Alumni Association of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on 5 Jan 2013. The Forum aims to discuss the update development of manufacturing industries of Hong Kong and see how they can overcome the challenges. The summary was shared below.

In the beginning, Dr. K.S. Chin (Asso. Professor, SEEM of CityU) presented an opening remark. He briefed the ITF government funding and CityU applied research funding could assist manufacturing industry.

Group photo of all speakers and representatives of supporting organizations

The first speaker was Mrs. Agnes Mak Tang Pik-yee (MH, JP, Executive Director of HKPC) and her topic entitled "Hong Kong Industry Challenge and Recently Support Policy".

Mrs. Mak said the Hong Kong industry faced the challenge externally and internally including labour and material cost increase in mainland, currency rate; traditional OEM was missing the advantage. The solution of Hong Kong Industry was related to "Branding", "Upgrading" and "Domestic Sales". Then she introduced the BUD Fund. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government setup a "Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales" (the BUD Fund) of $1 billion in June 2012 to help Hong Kong enterprises capture the opportunities arising from the National 12th Five-Year Plan. (Details please visit at http://www.bud.tid.gov.hk/english/bud/bud_intro.html )

Then Mr. Mak introduced that HKPC established "SME One" service to provide one-stop shop comprehensive information in relations to various government industry support funding schemes, market financial proposals and latest IT solutions pertinent to enhanced operation and efficiency to SMEs.

The second speaker was Mr. Ralph Chow (Director, Product Promotion of Hong Kong Trade Development Council) and his presentation named "TDC Grows with Hong Kong Manufacturers".

Firstly, Mr. Chow overview the global economic included Mainland Market, Mature Markets (included US, Europe and Japan) and Emerging Markets (included Asia (India & Indonesia), Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Chile & Peru), Central and Eastern Europe (Turkey, Poland & Russia) and Middle East & North Africa (Dubai, Egypt, Kenya & Nigeria). The following slide showed the different promotional objectives in each market.

Then Mr. Chow briefed different activities to assist Hong Kong industry to mainland market included Style Hong Kong Show which held large-scale fairs for untapped 2nd or 3rd tier cities and identified promotional platforms for niche sectors (e.g. Baby products, Pet supplies, Silver market and Green products), as well as, Design Gallery Expansion Plan. Mr. Chow said it promoted over 200 Hong Kong brands on Design Gallery online shop anchored at Taobao's B2C & C2C platforms. Moreover, Mr. Chow identified one of Hong Kong's advantages is to promoting Hong Kong as an IP Business Hub.

After the break, Ir. Ricky SW Wu (Committee member, MIES-IETHK) brief the membership of IET.

Then Dr. Simon Shum (Honorary Secretary, MILESAA, PolyU) introduced the membership of MILES Alumni Association of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. "MILES" stands for Manufacturing, Industrial, Logistics, Enterprise and System.

The third speaker was Mr. Steve Chuang (CEO, Protronic (Far East) Ltd; HKEIA) and his topic was "The advantage and challenge of Hong Kong Electronic Industry".

Mr. Chuang analyzed the export industry and found that electronic and domestic product covered more than 50%. The diagram showed the performance by major industry in 2011.

Then, Mr. Chuang mentioned the advanages of Hong Kong Electronic Industry.
Environment - Testing and certification hub in Hong Kong and buyers had confidence.
Policy - Matching the National 12th 5 Year Plan, BUD HK$1billion funding and other fundings.
However, the challenges of Hong Kong Electronic Industry were also discussed.
Environment - Global economic unstable and competition among other new markets
Policy - the conflict between China and Japan.
Finally, Mr. Chuang expected the future development on mobile devices and LED lighting.

The last speaker was Mr. Sze Kam Shing (Chairman of Hong Kong Metals Manufacturers Association) and his presentation topic was "Industry status in Pearl River Delta and the Necessity of the Development for Advance Manufacturing Industry".

Mr. Sze summarized the history of industry development and compared with other developed country. China industrialization only used 30 years because technology, communication and transportation reduced the development time.

Mr. Sze said it was a low profit margin business period after 30 years industry development. The following Smile Chart indicated the most value added processes were in the product design (Global Competition) and the product brand & service (Local Competition). The assembly and manufacturing was the lowest value added process.

Finally, Mr. Sze mentioned 5 industries could enhance the development of metal industry. They were electronic product (e.g. iPad & smartphone), automotive electronics & components, intelligent electricity network & new energy, health & medical device, and automation machine / testing equipment.

The Q&A session:
During the discussion, participants shared the ratio of manufacturing and service industry was about 1:3 in developed country. The problem from organization and management was one of factors which affect the upgrade of the industry.

Reference:
IET (HK) - http://www.iee.org.hk/iee/eng/about/about_intro.jsp
MILESAA - http://www2.ise.polyu.edu.hk/milesaa/mission1.asp
SEEM, CityUHK - http://www.cityu.edu.hk/seem/