Our ref : 51/WKC/056
19 July 2002

Mr Antony Leung
Financial Secretary
Government Secretariat
5/F Main Wing
Central Government Offices
Lower Albert Road
Hong Kong

Dear Mr Leung

Promotion of the Service Industries

The Hong Kong Coalition of Service Industries, founded by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, has been a long time supporter, indeed champion, of the Services Promotion Programme. As a “think tank” organisation, we have been conducting regular brainstorming meetings among ourselves on strengthening the services promotion effort. Following a recent meeting of our Executive Committee, I would like to share with you through this letter a few thoughts from our own discussion. I hope you will find these useful.

Structure of Services Promotion

It is a pleasure indeed for me to be personally involved in the Services Promotion Strategy Group. The SPSG has, I believe, been contributing helpful advice to the government on its Services Promotion Programme. You may recall that when the framework for services promotion was first established, the Business and Services Promotion Unit was created under the Financial Secretary’s Office. As a result of a restructuring exercise, the BSPU was moved to the Commerce and Industry Bureau and it now comes under the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau. Under the current government structure, however, we believe there is a strong case to revert to the earlier arrangement whereby BSPU comes directly under the Financial Secretary’s Office.

We have no doubt over effective coordination among government bureaux and departments. However, given that services sector issues by nature cut across virtually all government bureaux, we believe it important to place the coordinating body and related agencies in the proper structural context within the government system, i.e. directly under your office.

In your first Budget Speech last March you have emphasised the importance of the service industries for Hong Kong which, needless to say, has our full backing. Through the re-structuring of the BSPU, an opportunity will be created to further strengthen the Services Promotion Action Agenda, which, in our view, should be made up of initiatives that provide some sort of “driver” for the service economy, not just implementation of identified needs.

Cross-sectoral Brainstorming Forum

The HKCSI is privileged to have organised five successive brainstorming forums on “The Servicing Economy”. We are pleased to see the improvement in these forums over the past years – the extension of sectors from tripartite (business, academics and officials) to penta (politicians and media); the introduction of the very useful preparatory forums; the broadening of issues to cover new and challenging areas like healthcare and social services, etc. No doubt the Servicing Economy Forum has become a well-established cross-sectoral platform for policy discussion and formulation.

We would be very happy to continue to organise the Forum with the BSPU and Hong Kong University. Before we do so, however, it might be worthwhile to reflect upon the way to move forward as we take stock of the Forum’s achievements. The Forum is a unique opportunity for senior representatives from across the community to converge for collective thinking, and we should seek to maximise the value of such a gathering.

Instead of replicating the current format, we are coming to the view that a more structured discussion on better-focused subjects may be more fruitful. Instead of a free-wheeling brainstorming on four selected topics, perhaps more concrete proposals could be put forward for comment, criticism, advocacy and debate. This may mean commissioning some groups – which could be some academic grouping, the Central Policy Unit, the Chamber, or some combination of all – to conduct a little more research and come up with concrete policy proposals for presentation, with the emphasis on innovative policy making; rather than mere idea-sharing.

It is our firm believe that Hong Kong has tremendous think-tanking ability and we need to manage this very well in order to get the best out of it. We remain open to any other ideas from you or your colleagues on how best to move forward.

Hong Kong Awards for Services

I take this opportunity also to draw your attention to the Hong Kong Awards for Services. We have had the pleasure of proposing, designing, launching, coordinating and organising the Awards. Over the past five years the Award Scheme has established itself as the Oscars of the service industries, in parallel with the 14-year old Hong Kong Awards for Industry, but at only half the budget.

While remaining a leading organiser of the Innovation category of the Services Awards, we have passed the coordination of the Award Scheme to the capable hands of the Hong Kong Productivity Council. Lately, however, we learnt from the HKPC that you have indicated that you are unable to join the Award Presentation Dinner. I urge you to reconsider your decision. We are concerned that without your patronage there might be a perception of a downgrading of the Services Awards which might undermine the services promotion effort.

We are aware of the heavy demand on your time in supporting these events. We have time and again proposed to the government and the other interested parties to rationalise the various award schemes so as to maximise their value to the community, and we shall continue to advocate that. Until that takes place, however, we do believe a strong signal of the government’s support is needed to maintain the momentum in promoting this very important economic sector of Hong Kong. All five leading organisers would be happy to change the time to suit your schedule.

Finally, thank you again for your personal support to the services promotion effort.

Yours sincerely

Stanley Ko
Chairman