Mr Tung, Mr Tang, ladies and gentlemen,

I am glad to have the chance to speak to you tonight in my capacity as Chairman of this year's judging panel for the Young Industrialist Awards of Hong Kong.

Those who have tuned their ears to the Cantonese channel may wonder why I am speaking in English. Could it be that this government official had missed the cue from the Chief Executive who delivered his first policy address in Cantonese?

Certainly not. However, the organisers have suggested to me that I should address you in English as the two other speakers tonight will be addressing you in Cantonese and Putonghua respectively. When I pondered about the suggestion, I came to the conclusion that it was indeed a very sensible one. It is a reflection not only of the fact that our community uses two languages and three dialects, but that we do so with confidence and competence. This is our competitive edge and we must do all we can to preserve it.

But our competitive edge lies not only in our language ability. Our position vis-a-vis the Mainland of China is equally important. In the past two decades, our industrialists have come under increasing competitive pressure from other developing economies who have the advantage of cheaper land and labour. To maintain the competitiveness of Hong Kong products, many of our industrialists have taken the strategic decision to expand their manufacturing operations, first into the Pearl River Delta, and more recently into the rest of the Mainland. They have retained in Hong Kong the processes which we do best, such as product design, modelling and tooling, marketing, financing, insurance and shipping. And they have relocated to the Mainland those manufacturing processes which require an abundant supply of land and labour at competitive prices. The result is a winning formula which has led to the successful restructuring of our economy and continued economic growth for the past two decades. And we have become the envy of many of our competitors. Not only have we not lost our manufacturing base, we have expanded it in a manner few could have imagined. Not only have we not lost our competitiveness, we have improved it in a way few could have emulated.

But we would not be making the best use of our position as a Special Administrative Region of China if we merely continue to rely only on a supply of relatively cheap land and labour in the Mainland. We all know that in order to stay on top of our competitors, we must continue to develop and adapt new technologies; we must expand into higher value-added and knowledge-intensive activities. In this, we must recognise that the Mainland provides a ready source of highly trained professionals and scientists whose expertise we could call on. I am glad to say that our industrialists are not slow in tapping into this source of knowledge and expertise to improve our overall competitive edge.

This brings me conveniently to the criteria which we have adopted in our consideration of the claims of individual candidates to the outstanding Young Industrialist Awards. Given the unique development of Hong Kong's manufacturing industry in the past two decade which I have just outlined, the panel of judges agreed early on that we should not adopt too narrow a view of a Hong Kong industrialist. Rather, we should aim to give recognition to those who have made the best use of Hong Kong's extended manufacturing base, those who have created and nurtured new market niches and those who have developed and adapted technology to enhance the value-added and competitiveness of their products.

The adjudication has not been easy. As in previous years, we have a good crop of candidates: industrialists who are dedicated, enterprising and forward-looking; industrialists who have worked hard to upgrade their production processes, improve their competitiveness and develop new market niches. While we have decided at the end to recommend only seven candidates for the award, I must say that the judging panel is of the view that all the candidates deserve the community's recognition and encouragement.

Of course, the seven winners tonight are particularly praise-worthy. They are exemplary examples of what our industrialists can do to enhance the general competitiveness and reach of Hong Kong products. I am sure I can speak on behalf of you all when I say that we look forward to their continued success in their industrial endeavours.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to commend the Federation of Hong Kong Industries for organising such a meaningful event, and to thank the Chairman, Mr Tang, for giving me the honour of chairing the judging panel.

Thank you.