A Proposal for Shared Facilities for Industry and Professional Bodies
Hong Kong Coalition of Service Industries

This is a draft paper. Please feel free to sent your comments to csi@hkcsi.org.hk

1. In February 1996 the HKCSI made a second submission to the Financial Secretary entitled "Towards Service Excellence II" in which the Coalition put forward further recommendations on promotion of services. Among the Coalition's suggestions is the recommendation "to have the secretariat of a number of smaller industries and sectors within the same office (so as to) improve collectively the cost-effectiveness of these industries bodies as well as enhance coordination and cooperation among sectors." (Para 19(3), Towards Service Excellence II)
2. In his 1996 Budget Speech the Financial Secretary announced a campaign to promote Hong Kong's service sector with an "Addendum" to the Budget entitled "The Service Sector - Support and Promotion". One of the "policy directions" in this Addendum is "to explore the possibility of setting up a joint office, with common facilities, for professional institutions in Hong Kong to relieve their difficulties in finding suitable accommodation." (p.50) The Coalition supports this as it is in line with the CSI recommendation.
3. In the final report of the government task force on services promotion which was published together with the Financial Secretary's 1997 Budget speech, the following progress in respect of joint office for professional bodies is reported:
   

   The Land Development Corporation (LDC) has agreed to allocate part of the Gross Floor Area of 2708 square metres reserved for Government/Institution/ Community uses in the LDC Scheme in Jubilee Street for setting up a joint office for local professional institutions, and will approach the Town Planning Board for approval in April 1997. (p.58)

4. This is listed as an "action on schedule". No further mention is made in the "Further Policy Directions for the Future", and no further detail is available on how the joint office concept will be implemented. It appears that government considers the task achieved once Town Planning Board approval has been given for the Jubilee Street office to be used for that purpose.
5. However, we do not believe the "policy direction" as set out in the Addendum to the 1996 Budget is fulfilled after the office space has been made available. In our view, the emphasis of the 1996 "policy direction" should be on the "joint office with common facilities" rather than simply on availability of office space. If there is no further plan to facilitate the most effective use of that office space, the likelihood is that it will be taken up mostly by well-established professional bodies.
6. We have no objection to providing office accommodation for professional bodies which are well-established. They are non-profit making institutions and the provision for more convenient accommodation is well justified. But if in the end the Jubilee Street office is all taken up by established institutions, then we submit that an important part of the 1996 policy direction will remain unfulfilled. There will still be a need to provide a joint office with common facilities for the smaller institutions.
7. We believe there is a good case for a greater degree of assistance to be offered to these smaller bodies. They often need to be sponsored in some form before they become self-sufficient entities. The assistance given to these bodies should be seen as a form of investment with good returns for the economy as a whole. Examples abound of small institutions which grow into bodies of considerable stature and contribution with the support of other parties. The Retail Management Association, for example, used to be sponsored by the Hong Kong Management Association. The Association of Retail Tourism Services is supported by the Hong Kong Tourist Association. The PSCE Centre of the Private Sector Committee on the Environment received a land grant from government. Even the HKCSI itself thrives on support by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.
8. We propose that a dedicated business centre should be established for small industry and professional associations. This business centre should be reasonably centrally located such as in the Jubilee Street site or in some other offices which the Government Land Agent could help identify. The space should be offered free to a service provider under a management contract. The service provider will be required to provide a business-centre service to its clients which should be at a reasonable discount to the market rate.
9. The clients should typically be small non-profit industry or trade associations. A variety of business centre services should be available to suit the needs of bodies of different sizes and levels of development including:
   • Small offices for rental at a reasonable rate to associations which will be employing one to two permanent staff.
   • Workstations for rental for organisations which cannot afford permanent full time staff.
   • Secretarial services and full office facilities including conference rooms, for hire by client bodies.
10. The initial set-up of this office could be funded by a grant by the Services Support Fund. The office will then be run on a self-financing basis. The client industry bodies will have the additional option of applying for funding, say from the Services Support Fund, to fund some specific projects.
11. Such an arrangement has many advantages. Through a central secretariat the overhead will be shared and the service will be of much higher quality. The overall efficiency and effectiveness of these bodies will be much higher.
12. We believe there is a demand for such a business centre from bodies such as the Institute of Financial Executives, the Management Consultants Group of the HKCSI, the executive search consultants, practitioners in logistics, the Association of Business Communicators, etc. Through this paper we hope to initiative a process of discussion among government, industry and the HKCSI with a view to developing the concept further.

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