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Chamber Programmes

Exporting Education

Despite all the criticism that we dish out as concerned parents regarding the shortcomings of Hong Kong's education system, our students' attainment records actually rank among the highest in the world, Fanny Law, Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower, told members at the Chamber's July 22 roundtable luncheon.

"In a study in 2002, the Programme for International Student Assessment, which is a literacy test on all our 15-year olds in three areas -- namely mathematics, science and reading -- you will find that actually Hong Kong students fare extremely well," she said. "We were first in maths, third in science and sixth in reading, out of the 43 countries that participated in the survey."

The gap between the best and worst students in Hong Kong is also relatively narrow compared to other countries, which all in all makes our students highly competitive, she added.

This record of high academic achievement can be used to help Hong Kong export education and become an education hub for the region. Although Ms Law admits that that goal may be some way off, efforts to relax immigration rules to enable secondary students from the Mainland to study at Hong Kong's private and direct-subsidy-scheme (DSS) schools are already underway.

"We are working on relaxing immigration rules for secondary students and also post-secondary students to study in Hong Kong, but it is not an easy policy to change. I can't promise you an exact date, but we are aiming for the school year of 2005-06," she said.

Details such as quotas, quota allocation, and administration requirements are all concerns that still need to be resolved. Hong Kong has 40 private and 42 DSS secondary schools, and schools will be free to set their own student fees.

Regarding the export of education, Hong Kong can clearly serve the southern part of China, as Guangdong has explicitly stated that it is keen for Hong Kong education organisations to operate in the province. Joint programmes in the form of 6-12 month sandwich pro-grammes with Mainland institutions can also be explored to expand our capacity and foster cooperation between the two areas, she said.


Speech    Q & A 

Shenzhen Sets Sights on Becoming IT Powerhouse

"Our most important task is to provide the best investment environment to foreign enterprises so that Shenzhen can lead the development of China's high-tech sector," said Wang You-ming, Deputy Director-General of the Science, Technology and Information Bureau.

Speaking to members of the Chamber's delegation to Shenzhen High-Tech Industrial Park (SHIP) on July 7, led by Oscar Chow, Chairman of HKGCC's Industry and Technology Committee, Mr Wang said Shenzhen has been focusing its efforts on attracting high-tech industries to the city, in particular IT industries. The city is also keen to cooperate with venture capitalists and Hong Kong bankers interested in providing financial services to buyers of Mainland IT products.

Established in 1996, SHIP is one of the Mainland's five state-level high-tech parks supported by the Central Government. Covering 11.5 sq. km, the park serves as a base for high-tech industrialisation, R&D, incubation, and technology training.

"IT products contribute 92 percent of the total industry output value in the park, of which 50 percent have been developed by enterprises which own the IPR rights to the products," Zhang Heng-chun, Deputy Director-General of SHIP's administrative office explained.

The Chamber delegation also visited ZTE Corporation, China's largest listed telecommunications equipment provider, which specialises in developing telecom networks and equipment.


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Exciting Times Ahead for the Digital Entertainment Industry

The digital entertainment explosion is taking place globally at a speed much faster than we think and Hong Kong could be at the epicentre of this revolution, Jack So, Deputy Chairman and Group Managing Director of PCCW, told members at the Chamber's Conversation with a General Committee Member series on July 22.

Broadband technology is driving changes in the way people do business, but its impact on our daily lives will increasingly be felt in Hong Kong and beyond, he says. "We call this the 'triple-play,' which over the same pipeline will give you voice, data and video signals. So this is the conduit for new inter-connectivity that results in a whole host of innovative products and services," Mr So says.

Hong Kong is a global leader in broadband network development; an entertainment hub for millions of Chinese and Orientals around the world; and a producer of contents. With the infrastructure and expertise already in place to take digital entertainment to the next level, Mr So predicts many content providers around the region will use Hong Kong as their launch pad into regional and international markets.

Talking about his transition from Chairman and CEO of MTRC in his previous job to Deputy Chairman of PCCW, Mr So said that such transitions are never easy, but for senior management positions, there are many similarities between the two jobs.

"It senior management level, you are not managing the nuts and bolts or the switching mechanisms. You are managing resources -- financial resources, human resources and looking at your balance sheet, analysing problems and hopefully coming up with solutions," he said. "Your duty and your accountability are towards the shareholders, staff and the general public, so in that sense there are a lot of similarities."

Regarding human resource management, Mr So said he personally believes that there is no bigger incentive or driver for staff than pride in their job. "This has to do with senior management keeping all communication channels open with staff," he said.

WEC Adventurer

Dr Rebecca Lee, Founder and Director of the China Polar Museum Foundation, shared with members at a Chamber WEC talk on July 26 her incredible experiences in the Arctic, Antarctic, and Mount Qomolangma, and the many beautiful scenes that she photographed during her adventures.

Speech (In Cantonese)    Q & A 



Telecommunications
Competition Overkill?

Here in Hong Kong, we are spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing a mobile telecommunications pro-vider. Years of intense competition among service providers has created one of the most competitive mobile services markets in the world, and given customers an incredible choice of services at low prices.

The result is that the mobile market penetration rate of 106 percent is among the highest in the world. We have more mobile service providers to choose from than most with six, compared to three each for Japan, Korea and Singapore. And because more competition means lower prices, we tend to talk more on our mobiles than our neighbours. Hongkongers gas on for an average of 570 minutes per month, compared to the Japanese who chat for an average of just 166 minutes per month.

The office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) is hoping that customers will benefit from similarly intense competition in the third-generation mobile services by proposing a fifth market player pits emerging CDMA 2000 technology against the current WCDMA standard.

But Janusz Ordover, Professor of Economics at New York University, says that too much competition runs the risk of undermining the current transition to the next generation of mobile communications, or 3G.

"When entry costs are large and sunk, unimpeded entry can have potentially adverse consequences on the economic health of the operator," he told members at the Chamber's July 6 roundtable luncheon. "Excessive entry endangers existing firms' ability to recover costs, thereby retarding industry-wide investment and innovation."

He argues that it will be difficult to repeat the success of existing mobile services in Hong Kong with the mobile data services by introducing a fifth third-generation mobile operator.

OFTA is proposing to give consumers more choice by taking back Hutchison's 2G CDMA license and offering it up for sale to players willing to use the CDMA 2000 technology.

OFTA's proposal to re-auction the CDMA spectrum aims to allow the market to choose the right technology, whether WCDMA -- favoured by existing 3G licensees -- or CDMA 2000 which will grow out of the re-auctioned spectrum.

"The proposal will likely retard and not promote the development of 3G," says Dr Ordover. "Adding another carrier will worsen 3G economics for the already awarded licensees."

He believes the current competition which has pushed prices for mobile voice calls in Hong Kong to levels among the lowest in the world is one reason why 3G services have been slow to take off here. In Japan, for example, voice calls are not much cheaper than data calls, so customers are more willing to pay for 3G services.

An additional competitor with a different technology will only increase the risk and uncertainty in the rollout and future provision of 3G technology, he says. Given the slow uptake of current 3G offerings, operators are unsure what broadband wireless services and technologies will prevail and attract customers.

As a result, handset makers, software writers, peripheral device makers, etc., will also gingerly develop products, further retarding 3G development, if market forces have yet to define the "preferred" technology.

Dr Ordover believes that throwing CDMA 2000 technology into the ring would reduce the attainable market share of existing WCDMA vendors and their chances of survival, as well as dampen their enthusiasm to explore ways to increase their market share through innovation and new services.

Adam Smith might be turning in his grave at the very thought of this, but Dr Ordover argues that while competition can drive innovation and development, too much can end up creating the opposite effect.

"The regulatory challenge in Hong Kong is to ensure that too much competition does not undermine the transition to the next generation of mobile telecommunications, while securing attractive prices and scope of services for Hong Kong consumers," he says.

Speech    Q & A    Slides 

MTR: From Hong Kong to the World

The MTRC celebrates its silver anniversary this year and heads into its second 25 years with a new CEO at the helm, Sir C K Chow, driving a proposal to merge MTRC with the government-owned Kowloon-Canton Railway Corp.

Both firms are committed to submitting a detailed merger proposal to government before their deadline at the end of August expires, Sir CK told members at the Chamber's July 13 roundtable luncheon, although fundamental issues between the two corporations had yet to be worked out.

"We are two-thirds through the process, working hard and trying to submit a proposal by the deadline, even though we have a number of barriers to overcome," he said.

Although it was too early to say what the merger terms would be, he did say the merger would result in considerable cost savings, as overlapping services could be streamlined.

When asked about potential job losses, Sir CK said the KCRC's new rail projects and MTRC's globalisation strategy would help preserve jobs of employees of both firms.

"The best way to preserve employment is not to just make a company more efficient. The way to go is by generating wealth and growing opportunities," he said. "Nobody can save one's way to prosperity. Therefore, you have to look at how do you generate wealth? I think we will be in a much stronger position to do this with the merger, which would give us both regional as well as metro capabilities. This would also give us a very strong edge overseas."

Speech    Q & A 

Full list of Chamber programmes in July >>