Speeches
Speech by the Director-General of Trade and Industry, Ms Salina Yan, at the 2019 Hong Kong Awards for Industries Presentation Ceremony (English only)
Monday, December 2, 2019
Following is the speech by the Director-General of Trade and Industry, Ms Salina Yan, at the 2019 Hong Kong Awards for Industries Presentation Ceremony today (December 2) :
Dennis, Bernard, Award winners, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon. It is my great pleasure to be here with you this afternoon to honour the winners of the 2019 Hong Kong Awards for Industries. The Awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of our enterprises. Their strong commitment to achieve excellence is truly impressive.
The stark reality is that Hong Kong's economy is facing both external and internal challenges. Against the strong headwinds, the Government has announced three successive rounds of measures in August, September and October to support enterprises and safeguard jobs. These include a waiver for 27 groups of government fees and charges, cutting rent of various government business premises by 50 per cent, and initiatives to provide financial support to the transport and tourism sectors.
To help our SMEs cope with liquidity problem, we have also introduced new measures to offer loan guarantee under more relaxed terms. Specifically, under the SME Financing Guarantee Scheme administered by the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation and the SME Loan Guarantee Scheme managed by the Trade and Industry Department, enterprises may apply to banks for repaying interest payments only, without repaying the principal for a maximum of 12 months. A new loan guarantee product under the existing SME Financing Guarantee Scheme under which 90% guarantee will be provided for approved loans taken out by eligible enterprises with minimal operating experience will also be introduced.
In addition, we are going to inject $2 billion into the Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales, or the BUD Fund, and $1 billion into the SME Export Marketing Fund, or the EMF. With this funding support, the geographical scope of the BUD Fund will be extended to include all economies with which Hong Kong has signed Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), and each non-listed enterprise may apply for a total of $4 million of grants under the BUD Fund's Mainland Programme and FTA Programme, doubling the current funding amount of $2 million. We will also double the cumulative funding ceiling for each enterprise to $800,000 under the EMF to help SMEs expand their markets outside Hong Kong through participation in export promotion activities. Bernard and I spent seven hours last Friday at the LegCo Finance Committee meeting answering Members' questions on the funding increase proposals. Certainly we hope FC can approve the package of support measures as soon as possible, hopefully at the coming FC meeting this Friday.
In order to facilitate our enterprises, particularly our SMEs, to tap into these funding schemes and get the right support, we have integrated the services of the four SME centres under the Trade and Industry Department, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the Hong Kong Productivity Council and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation since October into a one-stop shop. With the help of HKPC, a dedicated service team will also be established to reach out to SMEs by visiting local trade and industrial associations to provide support service on the funding schemes. I encourage our colleagues running the one-stop services to look to those who will be receiving the Customer Service Award today for best practices in delivering quality services to users.
In tandem with giving out grants and loans, the Government has been actively seeking to expand our FTA network in order to diversify our markets and secure favourable conditions for Hong Kong's goods and services to enter the Mainland and international markets. Against the prevailing protectionist spectre in international trade, I am glad to say that we have doubled the number of FTAs signed with other economies over the past two years, including the one with the 10 ASEAN economies, and the latest one with Australia. These FTAs bring about legal certainty and more favourable market access for Hong Kong enterprises and professionals through lowering of tariffs and other trade facilitative measures, thereby helping them to explore untapped business opportunities and expand their business.
Our free trade agreement with the Mainland, or CEPA as it is commonly known, provides impetus for our enterprises to capture the enormous business opportunities in the Mainland. CEPA is now a comprehensive agreement covering four areas of "trade in goods", "trade in services", "investment" and "economic and technical cooperation". On 21 November, the Mainland and the Hong Kong SAR signed an Amendment Agreement to the Services Agreement under CEPA, bringing in new liberalisation measures in a number of key services sectors, such as professional services, financial services, TV and film production, testing and certification services. These measures will help sustain the first-mover advantage of our trade in establishing strong holds in the Mainland market. We encourage our services industries to make the best use of the CEPA Services Agreement.
Back to this year's Hong Kong Awards for Industries, I am delighted to know that the Grand Award Winners have continued to adopt innovation and technology to enhance the competitiveness of their business operations. This includes the use of cutting edge technology in traditional machinery and utility industries, smart factory and artificial intelligence in production, robotics in medical industry, and innovative business model in brand building. Their achievement represents the innovative, energetic, adventurous spirit of Hong Kong businesses, hence it is very befitting that the ceremony is held here in the Science Park.
My congratulations once again to the winners of the 2019 Hong Kong Awards for Industries. My thanks also go to the Organising Committee, the seven Organisers and the judging panels for their support in making the Awards a great success. In particular, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong (CMA) for organising the ceremony today and congratulate CMA for its 85th anniversary this year.
With the approach of the holiday season, may I wish you and your family joy, peace and success for Christmas and the New Year. Thank you.
Ends