Annual Report 2013-14

4 FHKI Annual Report 2013-14 Chairman’s Statement 主席報告 With the new term of the General Committee commencing in July 2013, the Federation of Hong Kong Industries (FHKI) continues to spare no effort in advocacy and launching initiatives to better serve our members. This annual report outlines how we lived up to our mission and our key accomplishments in 2013-14. We have kept a close dialogue with top government officials of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to help shape policies concerning Hong Kong’s industrial and economic development. The Government has accepted our proposals on a number of issues, including enhancing support for research and development (R&D) activities and launching a Recycling Fund in the Policy Address. As for Hong Kong enterprises in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), we paid frequent visits to the Guangdong Provincial Government to reflect our views to them. Our lobbying efforts regarding the trade union fund, for example, yielded a positive result. I also led a FHKI delegation to Beijing in November 2013 to meet relevant ministerial leaders to discuss issues pertaining to the interests and concerns of Hong Kong enterprises in the Mainland. The manufacturing sector faced a rather tough year due to the sluggish recovery of advanced economies and a slowdown of emerging markets including the Mainland. In this connection, the FHKI has raised concerns to the Mainland authorities on the cumulative impact of rising wages and land costs, trade union fund and the proposed collective negotiation regulation. To combat these challenges, some enterprises leverage on automation while others move their labour-intensive work processes to inland provinces, Southeast Asia or Africa where labour costs are lower. Thus, a series of seminars on automation and technological advancement were organised for our members during the year. We also conducted trade missions to various Mainland provinces and development zones, such as Qianhai, the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, as well as overseas countries namely Turkey and Russia to help members explore potential relocation areas as well as new markets. Although the Mainland posed considerable challenges to manufacturers, its strong economic fundamentals still bring substantial business prospects. The FHKI has secured financial support from the Government’s “Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales” (BUD Fund) to roll out five projects in the year to assist specified industries to transform and upgrade their operations and tap into the vast Mainland market. Furthermore, we have commissioned The Hong Kong Polytechnic University to conduct the fourth PRD Study on the operation of Hong Kong industries in the PRD, and analyse the challenges with a view to recommending mid- to long-term development directions. nual Report