Engulfed by the tides of globalisation and the technological revolution, all countries and economies around the world are well aware of the fact that being complacent means retrogression. They strive to improve themselves in order to be competitive and avoid being eliminated. Hong Kong also needs to maintain its own advantage in this global trend and pursue perfection. With this in mind, Savantas Policy Institute (“the Savantas”) has commissioned the Pan Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy Research Centre (“PSEC”) and Professor HO Lok-sang, Former Senior Research Fellow and Honorary Research Fellow of PSEC and Dean of Business of Chu Hai College of Higher Education to conduct a two-year research on Hong Kong’s long-term competitiveness.
The release and seminar on "Hong Kong Long-Term Competitiveness Study Report" were held by the Savantas yesterday on 6 April at Central and the report was presented by Professor HO Lok-sang, who is the author of the report. The Savantas had invited representatives from different industries to participate in this seminar and discuss the research findings, situation of their represented industries and the overall competitiveness of Hong Kong. The representatives included Dr. Aaron SHUM Wan-lung, Secretary General of Hong Kong Business Community Joint Conference, Mr. Ambrose LINN Hon-chung, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Construction Materials Association, Mr. Timothy SHEN Ka-yip, Chairman of Look's Asset Management Limited, Mr. Gerry YIM Liu-fai, Managing Director of Hong Kong International Terminals Limited and Dr. WONG Chung-kiu, Distinguished Fellows and Honorary Consultant of the Hong Kong Computer Society.
The seminar started with a welcome address by Mrs. Regina IP LAU Suk-yee, Member of the Legislative Council of HKSAR and Chairperson of the Board of Governors of the Savantas. In her welcome message, she expressed appreciation to the participants and said, “This research study was planned two years ago by Professor HO and me. We noted that Hong Kong's economic growth rate has continued to slow down. After 2012, Hong Kong's average annual economic growth rate was less than 3%; 2.4% in 2015 and 1.9% in 2016. Although Hong Kong and Singapore are both small and open economy, Hong Kong has already lagged behind Singapore.”
Mrs. IP believed that competitiveness was vital to the long-term development of an economic system. She added that several international research institutes studying the long-term competitiveness of various regions usually defined a number of factors to gauge competitiveness. So they tried to study Hong Kong’s competitiveness from micro- and macro- perspectives. Besides the fundamentals, like infrastructure and education level, Professor HO had emphasized more on the soft abilities. Achieving social coherence and consensus were the major obstacles of the political development of Hong Kong for the last 20 years, since the reunion of Hong Kong to China. Particularly in these few years, it seemed difficult for the society to achieve consensus and to embrace common values to push Hong Kong to move forward. In light of this, Professor HO had spent lots of time on this study.
In order to understand the latest development, prospects and needs of various industries, the Savantas and PSEC’s research team, which is led by Professor HO, Former Senior Research Fellow and Honorary Research Fellow of PSEC and Dean of Business of Chu Hai College of Higher Education, formed a steering committee consisting various local leaders from different industries to give advices to the research team. Besides, interviews with dozens of people from all walks of life were also conducted in this study by the research team.
Professor HO pointed out that there were worries and downward trend over Hong Kong’s competitiveness. In order to counter this situation, Hong Kong needed to strengthen her soft abilities and face the two major bottleneck problems: land and labour shortage. At the same time, the government should review the tax system, supervision on the financial system and the linked exchange rate system. More support to cultural and creative industries by government was also expected. For innovation industry, investment on human capital and research activities should be enhanced, whilst more cooperation with the Mainland and overseas partners should be encouraged.
The research report is divided into 3 sections, including a total of 12 chapters on "Overall Competitiveness", "Four Pillar Industries" and "Potential Areas of Development", which consists of analyses on Hong Kong's performance in terms of overall competitiveness; Hong Kong’s role in the national strategic development; and the development opportunities for existing pillar industries and emerging industries. If you are interested in this research report, please visithttp://www.savantas.org/?p=7173o download the relevant content.
