Emil Yu couldn't have imagined the effect an innocent comment would have in bringing to an end a reoccurring nightmare that had haunted him for over a decade.

In January 2001, at a Chamber SME Committee meeting, Mr Yu was chatting with the Chamber's Assistant Director Dr W K Chan, and happened to mention that he was losing sleep over a plot of land he had bought in 1990.

Dr Chan and SME Committee Secretary Charlotte Chow asked him what the problem was, and Mr Yu began to tell his story.

He explained that in 1980, Keystone Electric Wire & Cable bought a piece of land in Fanling to operate a PVC compound factory for the wire and cable products that it produced at its Shatin factory. In 1989, the company needed to expand its production facilities so it contracted a consultant and obtained permission from the Lands Department to construct a wire and cable plant in a second location at Kwan Tei North Village. Six months later, the District Land Office (North) approved its plans for the new plant and construction of the new factory began in 1990. Business skyrocketed that year and the company decided to purchase a plot of land adjacent to its Fanling wire and cable plant for further expansion. Considering that the adjacent plot had obtained a wire and cable production license already, Mr Yu said he believed that and additional license for the new plot should not be difficult.

"Our problem also began in 1990, because unbeknown to us, the land was gazetted for the Interim Development Permission Area Plan in that year," he explained. "This subjected Keystone to the new regulations, which took us almost two years to apply for and to get approval from the Town Planning Board for us to finish building our factory."

That wasn't the end of it. The Town Planning Board gave Keystone a shopping list of conditions that it had to comply with. In total, he had to pass six criteria -- everything from noise impact assessments, to drainage facilities to landscaping. Often the approval of one bureau was dependent on the other, and so the game of the cat chasing its tail began.

To add to his worries, in the 1990s, Hong Kong was booming and labor was in short supply. Keystone applied for the government's import labor scheme and in 1993 was allowed to import 10 workers on two-year contracts. Once the contracts expired, their application for renewal was rejected. Unable to hire new staff, the company was forced to close down its Shatin operations, which employed 120 staff, and move to Fanling to consolidate its operations.

The timing couldn't have been worse. Keystone had just signed a joint-venture agreement with Phelps Dodge Corporation of the U.S. in 1991, the second largest copper producer in the world after the Chilean Government.

Keystone had been working with Phelps Dodge since 1983, and the joint venture was one of the main reasons that it wanted to expand its Fanling plant.

"Then in 1983, the "Iron Lady" said Hong Kong would return to China in 1997. So we had a lot of staff emigrating overseas to get a passport," Mr Yu said.

Consolidating all Keystone's resources under its Fanling plant worked for a while, but key staff were still leaving. Mr Yu was also thinking about calling it quits in Hong Kong and moving his factory to the Mainland.

But his father, Yu Ching-sum, who founded the firm in 1969, and brother decided they should keep their roots in Hong Kong. But in 1995, the company built a factory in Dongguan, while retaining its key operations in Hong Kong.

"We also opened a factory in Singapore. Because we were losing too many people, we allowed our key staff to migrate to Singapore, get an overseas passport and then come back to Hong Kong," Mr Yu said. "Of course all those worries have turned out to be unfounded, but it did allow us to keep our key staff."

Finding good consultants to help Keystone satisfy the Town Planning Board's regulations proved difficult.

The Chamber's Assistant Director Dr W K Chan, and SME Committee Secretary Charlotte Chow in January 2001 arranged a meeting with Brenda Yip, who headed the Helping Business Programme under the Business & Services Promotion Unit at the time, to see if anything could be done.

"Mrs Yip helped me resolve a major stepping stone in obtaining the Short Term Wavier in Land Usage for my factory in Fanling which I had been trying to solve for eight years," Mr Yu said.

A major challenge was getting all the bureaus involved to work as one to find a solution. Mrs Yip pulled all the departments concerned under one roof, discussed the problems, and found a way to resolve the issues.

"Subsequent meetings that the Chamber and Mrs Yip arranged for me with other government bureaus also helped me greatly, and with approval from the Town Planning Board on January 19, 2002, we could finally see light at the end of tunnel," Mr Yu said.

Keystone is now free to concentrate on building up its Hong Kong market, which currently takes about 80 per cent of its production. Among its clients are CLP Power Hong Kong Ltd, and PCCW-HKT.

Mr Yu believes the Mainland market offers great potential for his company. While Keystone products may not be the cheapest available on the market, the brandname, reputation for top-quality products, and added advantage of being a Hong Kong company with a U.S. joint-venture partner, will help him secure a secure niche in the Mainland market.

"China now wants quality products and services, and they are willing to pay a little more to get them, he said. So our added-value to them is how to do a quality installation job in China, and I think that is our niche," Mr Yu said.