Second Phase of e-Commerce Adoption Campaign Launched

Organisers are hoping that the campaign will shed light on why some local businesses continue to snub e-commerce

The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce's e-Committee Adoption Campaign organising committee launched the second phase of the E-commerce Adoption Campaign (ECAC) in November 2002, which aims to get more businesses and the general public in the habit of doing transactions online.

Launched in cooperation with major internet and technology related associations, professional bodies and government bodies in Hong Kong, the campaign will run for 12 months and build on the successes of last year's campaign.

"We received a lot of praise last year, but financial constraints prevented us from doing as much as we would have liked," said Chamber Information Services Committee Chairman Cindy Cheng, who, as chairman of the Chamber's e-Committee last year, helped kick off the campaign.

This year, HKGCC has managed to secure the SME Development Fund from the government for the ECAC project, which will allow it to run the campaign over the next 12 months.

Data mined from last year's programmes, such as the "Try it Online" promotion, roadshows and e-consultation sessions, will be updated through a number of industry specific e-commerce blueprint focus group discussions, which will be held in the coming months.

The organisers are hoping that these talks will shed light on why some local businesses continue to snub e-commerce. Despite the fact that fewer people are talking about e-commerce, Cheng does not think that this will be a problem in attracting interest to the campaign.

"I consider that is good news," she said. "It shows fewer people are talking about e-commerce either because they have written the whole idea off, or because it has become a part of their lives. I tend to think it is the latter."

Despite numerous surveys showing Hong Kong has been slow to adopt e-commerce, isolating the reasons why companies are dragging their feet has not been easy. The organisers are hoping to get those answers through the planned 7 focus group sessions: professional services, trading and wholesale, manufacturing, travel/tourism, financial services, transport/logistics, and IT solutions providers.

Information gathered from these sessions will analyse business behaviour, leadership, government vision and role, infrastructure and IT skills to set the blueprint for the remaining phases of the project.

Based on the findings in the e-Commerce Blueprint, a Business-to-Business ("B2B") symposium will be organised to educate Hong Kong SMEs on how to plan, build and deploy an effective B2B capability and to address the issues highlighted in the e-Commerce Blueprint.

SMEs that have successfully implemented e-commerce solutions in their companies will also share their experiences with other SMEs at the symposium. After that, roadshows will be organised to showcase the product and services of SMEs who have deployed e-commerce capabilities, particularly those who have deployed business-to-consumers e-commerce capabilities.

At the end of the campaign, a survey of participating SMEs will be conducted to find out, amongst others, whether the campaign has raised their awareness of the issues.

Past studies conducted by the Chamber have shown that, ultimately, consumers drive e-commerce traffic and adoption rate. Without a critical mass of consumers, businesses find it difficult to justify expenditure on e-commerce solutions. For the moment, the bulk of Hong Kong online consumer purchases are conducted via foreign sites, but the roadshows will showcase what Hong Kong businesses have to offer.

As with studies conducted for last year's e-Adoption Campaign, all findings from this year's ECAC will be compiled into a report so that SMEs and the general public will be able to leverage the results.

The e-Commerce Adoption Campaign is organised by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce in co-operation with the following organisations: (in alphabetical order)

• Hong Kong Computer Society
• Hong Kong Information Technology Federation
• Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association
• Hong Kong Productivity Council
• Hong Kong Society of Accountants
• Hong Kong Trade Development Council
• Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association Ltd
• Internet Professionals Association
• The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong

For further information and interviews, please contact Ms Anida Yuen at tel: 2823 1269.