LCQ10: Exhibitions organised by Trade Development Council

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Following is a question by the Hon Chan Yuen-han and a written reply by the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Mr John Tsang, in the Legislative Council today (November 12)(Translation):

Question:

Will the Government inform this Council whether it knows, in respect of the past three years:

(a) if the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (TDC) engaged private organisations to conduct studies; if it did, of the names of the organisations, the respective names of the studies, the time and amount of money required, and the percentage of the study fees in TDC's annual operation costs;

(b) how the number of exhibitions organised by TDC each year compared to that of the exhibitions held locally by the private sector during the same year;

(c) the criteria or assessment mechanism adopted by TDC for deciding whether an exhibition should be organised, and whether they included if private organisations had organised similar exhibitions; and

(d) among the exhibitions organised by TDC, the number of those which had themes and target audiences similar to those organised by private organisations during the same period?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) To keep Hong Kong businessmen informed of the changes in international trade regulations, as well as the development trends in various markets and industries, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (TDC) engages academic institutions, market research companies and experts with relevant expertise to assist it in gathering market intelligence and conducting detailed studies.

Information and findings consolidated will be disseminated by TDC to local businessmen through study reports, regular newsletters, e-newsletters or e-mails. Its research, survey and monitoring efforts focus on the following two areas:

(i) Market, product and sectoral development: TDC's Research Department commissions experts and market research companies around the world to carry out special studies on the latest development in various markets, new trends in industries, market entry strategies and marketing opportunities. The objective is to help Hong Kong businessmen map out their corresponding business strategies. These studies take about three to 12 months to complete (please refer to Appendix 1 for details). The expenses involved and its percentage in TDC's expenditure for the years concerned are set out as follows:

Year Expenses on market, product Percentage in and sectoral development TDC's overall studies/TDC's overall expenditure for expenditure for the year the same year (HKD'000) (%) 2001/02 7585 / 1393660 0.5443

2002/03 5333 / 1487860 0.3584

2003/04 2721 (up to September) 0.1786

/ 1523464

(ii) Survey on buyers and exhibitors in local exhibitions: TDC hires independent market research companies to conduct interview surveys on buyers and exhibitors in its major international trade fairs launched in Hong Kong. These surveys take about three to four days, to be followed by reports after the fairs to update local businessmen on the latest market, product and sourcing trends of individual products. TDC uploads these reports onto the internet for the information of the business community (please refer to Appendix 2 for details).

Year Expenses on surveys on Percentage in buyers and exhibitors in TDC's overall local exhibitions/TDC's expenditure for overall expenditure for the same year the year (HKD'000) (%)

2001/02 1184.9 / 1393660 0.085

2002/03 1383 / 1487860 0.092

2003/04 230 (up to September) 0.015 / 1523464

Studies under the above two areas incurred a total expenditure of HK$8.769 million in 2001/02, HK$6.716 million in 2002/03 and HK$2.951 million up to September of 2003/04, which respectively accounted for 0.629 per cent (2001/02), 0.451 per cent (2002/03) and 0.194 per cent (up to September of 2003/04) of the annual overall expenditure of TDC.

(b) According to the figures provided by the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), the number of exhibitions organised by TDC against the total number of exhibitions held in the HKCEC in the past three years are as follows:

Exhibitions held in the HKCEC (All exhibitions included)

                     Total    TDC Exhibition    Percentage

2001                 129           20              15.5%

2002                 150           20              13.3%

2003*                111           23              20.7%
(up to October 31)

* Many exhibitions held by private organisations were cancelled because of SARS. In contrast, TDC organised a supplementary exhibition in July to help local businessmen receive orders after the incident.

The above figures are compiled on the basis of statistics about exhibitions held in the HKCEC. Owing to commercial reasons, the relevant figures on other exhibition venues are not available. If the latter figures are also taken into consideration, the number of exhibitions held by TDC will account for an even lower percentage of the exhibitions held in Hong Kong.

Furthermore, the percentage of new exhibitions organised by the private sector at the HKCEC has far exceeded that of TDC in recent years. For example, of the 14 new exhibitions held at the HKCEC in 2002, only one was organised by TDC.

As a pioneer in organising many types of exhibitions, TDC welcomes the private sector to organise more exhibitions for promoting various trades and industries. TDC believes that with proper scheduling and coordination, it can work with the private sector to expand Hong Kong's exhibition industry, and reinforce Hong Kong's status as an exhibition capital.

(c) The prime consideration for TDC in organising a new exhibition is the potential of the exhibition to assist individual industries in promoting and increasing their exports, rather than to make a profit. This is the major difference between TDC and the private sector. In considering whether to organise an exhibition, TDC will also assess whether similar exhibitions have been organised by the private sector.

Over the past five years, in view of the needs of the film and television industry, the licensing sector, information and communication technology industry, as well as the lighting industry, TDC organised new trade fairs to help them with promotion.

In fact, some new exhibitions of TDC are outgrowths of the existing ones. For instance, lighting was one of the special sections of the Hong Kong Electronics Fair. Since the lighting industry has been developing rapidly, TDC singled it out for a fair of its own, so as to provide the industry with a dedicated promotion platform.

Besides, in light of the shortening life cycle of a number of products, particularly those in the electronics, toys and gifts industries, TDC considers it necessary to provide these industries with more marketing opportunities.

The toys, houseware and gifts industry is a case in point. The supplementary fair held in last July and the subsequent comprehensive survey that followed demonstrated to TDC the marketing and sourcing demand in summer. Thus, the TDC decided to stage an additional trade fair for these three industries in July next year.

Organising a new exhibition requires a great deal of resources. TDC has to conduct extensive surveys to ensure there is a demand for it. For the additional trade fair to be held in July next year, TDC conducted a number of surveys by questionnaire, face-to-face interview and group discussion to ascertain the demand before making the decision.

(d) Of the exhibitions now staged by TDC, most began as the only one of its kind for that particular industry. In other words, TDC is the fore-runner of many trade-specific exhibitions in Hong Kong. In the case of the fashion and clothing industry. TDC launched the Hong Kong Fashion Week as early as in 1970. Besides, it also organised the first Hong Kong Toys and Games Fair in 1975, the first Hong Kong Electronics Fair in 1981 and the first Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair in 1982. All these exhibitions were launched 10 to 20 years ahead of those organised by the private sector.

In the past decade, the exhibition industry has gradually developed in the private sector, fuelled by the robust development of all trades, the change of the international sourcing cycle as well as the completion of Phases I and II of the HKCEC. Exhibitions in Hong Kong have expanded in scale with increasing commercial values.

Please refer to Appendix 3 for the dates of the first exhibitions for various trades and industries initiated by TDC, the dates of those initiated by the other organisations and the themes of such exhibitions.

TDC is a facilitator of Hong Kong's exhibition industry, not a competitor with the private sector. It is the duty of TDC to enhance our external trade and organising trade fairs is the most effective means to achieve this end. Organising trade fairs is a basic function of TDC. TDC believes that it can co-exist with exhibition organisers in the private sector because of their different roles. Exhibitions held by TDC aim at promoting Hong Kong's export trades. They are scheduled with an adequate time gap from those with similar themes held by other organisations in accordance with the international practice of the exhibition industry. Above all, TDC is very willing to cooperate with the private sector, and there is no question of direct competition.

Ends/Wednesday, November 12, 2003

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