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2003 Hong Kong Award for Services: Innovation

Five of Hong Kong's best companies were honoured for their innovation last year at the 2003 Hong Kong Awards for Services gala dinner held on January 5.

Hong Kong and China Gas took the Innovation Grand Award for its creativity in developing its "Towngas Avenue," which combines shopping with interactive café services featuring a customer service centre.

"Instead of having a traditional customer services center with long queues and impatient bill-payers, Towngas Avenue has distinguished itself by becoming a lifestyle outlet, instead of being just a shroff," said Dr Lily Chiang, head of the HKGCC Judging Panel. "The company has overcome the inherent weakness of a needs-driven appliance outlet and transformed the cost-sheet services into an attractive service and a profitable business.  It is a model for other services providers to follow."

The four winners of the "2003 Hong Kong Award for Services: Innovation Award" were: Blue Cross (Asia-Pacific) Insurance Ltd; CITIC Ka Wah Bank; Luen Thai International Group Ltd; and One2Free, while Core Solutions received an "Honourable Mention."

Speaking at the awards ceremony, HKSAR Financial Secretary Henry Tang said Hong Kong people can rightly take pride in the services sectors, which employ over 84 percent of the working population. 

"Over the past decade, Hong Kong has transformed itself into a high value-added services centre, not only for Asia but for the entire world. There are now more than 270,000 service companies in Hong Kong, generating over HK$1 trillion, or 87 per cent of our GDP," he said.

To promote excellence in the service industries, HKGCC launched the Hong Kong Awards for Services in 1997. The awards has become the "Oscars" of the service industries. Since its inception, the Chamber has been the leading organiser of the Innovation Category, which aims to promote an innovative culture and creativity among Hong Kong's service industries.