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Following is the speech (translation) made by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, at the opening ceremony of the Hong Kong Products Expo today (December 14):
Mr Chan, ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning. It gives me great pleasure to officiate at the opening ceremony of the 37th Hong Kong Products Expo.
The Hong Kong Products Expo was first held in 1938 by the Hong Kong Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong, and has since then made tremendous contribution to promoting our industries and external trade. It has witnessed Hong Kong's advancement towards prosperity and formed part of people's lives and happy reminiscences. I can still recall the fun and excitement of the gala in the 1950s, staged in Tsim Sha Tsui in those days.
The Expo also bears witness to many local businesses developing from small to large enterprises, with some becoming world-acclaimed brand names. Here our small and medium enterprises can find a pool of business partners, and learn from others' experience in expanding production and establishing brand names. Today, as both the global and internal economies undergo dramatic changes with the advent of knowledge economy and globalisation, establishing one's own brand name is a goal Hong Kong enterprises should strive to achieve, as well as a key factor to our economic restructuring.
I am delighted with this year's Expo theme of "Hong Kong Brandnames Fantasia", with the Brandnames Square showcasing 60 famous local exhibitors. The 2002 Hong Kong Top Ten Brands Award is another highlight of the event. All these reflect the vision of our organiser on the global market.
The rapid economic development of the country and the booming market there indeed provide the best opportunities and the biggest arena for Hong Kong businessmen to develop their own brands.
Apart from creating more brands of our own, we can harness on our advantages as a world city and the shopper's paradise to attract more international brand names here, serving as a launching pad to the Chinese market for these international names, and to the world market for brands from the Mainland as well. There is nowhere better in the world that can work out as a world city of brand names than Hong Kong, offering our expectant consumers and visitors much rewarding shopping experiences.
Many brand names in today's Expo indeed started as small businesses. It is their perseverance in maintaining quality and their endeavours to open more markets to establish reputation that made them favourite names much sought after by both local and overseas consumers. I believe many Hong Kong small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have the potential to make themselves brand names to the world. I call on all of you to make the best of all aids and support offered by the Government.
Our economy is undergoing a full-scale restructuring. SMEs, a pillar of our economy representing 98% of our business operations and employing 60% of our working population, obviously play a linchpin role in our restructuring.
I would like to take this opportunity to update you on the review of the four SME funding schemes conducted by the Small and Medium Enterprises Committee, chaired by Mr Chan Wing Kee. The Committee has submitted the report to me and timely put forward a series of recommendations. Three new initiatives on supporting SMEs are as follows:
Firstly, the amount of business installations and equipment(BIG) loan guarantee for an SME will be doubled;
Secondly, SMEs which have secured the BIG loan guarantee will be granted a new working capital loan guarantee;
Thirdly, a new scheme providing guarantee for loans based on accounts receivable will be introduced, so that SMEs which do not require loans for business installations and equipment may also obtain working capital loan guarantee from the Government.
Taken together, an SME may obtain up to $4 million loan guarantee from the Government to acquire from lending institutions loans no less than $8 million.
As to SMEs which do not require loans for business installations and equipment, having accounts receivable may qualify them for a maximum of $1 million loan guarantee from the Government to secure from lending institutions working capital loans no less than $2 million based on accounts receivable to improve cash flow.
Other recommendations of the SME Committee include raising the ceiling of grants of the SME Export Marketing Fund from $10,000 to $40,000.
I accept the Committee's recommendations in full and will ask all departments concerned to implement them as soon as possible.
I believe that if our business sector continues to demonstrate our characteristic resilience and fully exploit Hong Kong's unique strengths in pushing our products and services up the value-added chain and upkeeping ourselves to the forefront of the market, we will make the economic restructuring a success.
Lastly, I wish the 37th Hong Kong Products Expo every success. Thank you.
End/Saturday, December 14, 2002
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