02/09/2021
Hong Kong Optical Manufacturers Association (HKOMA)
● Speech from the Current President Ms. Grace Cho Yee-Mui in the Annual General Meeting on 9th August 2021
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Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia pandemic at the beginning of last year, international business transactions have not returned to normal, and the market is still plagued by haze, but the current business environment is relatively clear under the vaccine bubble measures.
The 22nd new term executive committee election of Hong Kong Optical Manufacturers Association (HKOMA) was originally scheduled in August last year while the second wave of new coronary pneumonia outbreak was being in Hong Kong. Therefore, under the influence of gathering restrictions and epidemic safety at that time, the annual general meeting was changed online on 12th October last year, and the election of the new executive committee was postponed to 9th August. I am really very happy and grateful that the election can be successfully held with 41 members participated.
At the beginning of last year, when the epidemic broke out, HKOMA sent questionnaire to members for the situation of the industry, and joined together with the other Hong Kong manufacturing industries to reflect the industry aspirations to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government. At the same time, HKOMA also provided members with the latest information for the changes of the global economic and trade markets caused by the pandemic, and details on various support funds of HKSAR Government for the local SMEs. In order to help members further understanding funding and application details, HKOMA held several webinars last year, inviting representatives of the SME Support Center of the Industry and Trade Department, Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) and Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) online to answer questions from members.
In May of this year, HKOMA also accepted an invitation from the City University of Hong Kong, Research Team of the School of Law for a study about the impact of the pandemic on various industries in Hong Kong. For this research, we obtained members’ feedback from stable to cautiously optimistic about their business prospect. The overall opinion was the new crown epidemic being changed the global economic and trade model, and consumption was turning to pragmatism. In addition to the impact of the epidemic, the Hong Kong optical industry was also plagued by controversies between China and the United States. Under the circumstance of inflation in prices of raw materials, rising production costs, and human resources being strained, the actual profit of manufacturers is seriously under pressure. How can Hong Kong eyewear manufacturers maintain corporate profits? It is a topic that we need to discuss.
The mission of HKOMA is actively cooperated with market trends and the needs of members. We committed to work for the market promotion and technology upgrade, as well as to strengthen the overall development of the industry. Before the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia pandemic in 2019, the HKOMA Executive Committee had set a series of market expansion activities, such as exhibiting in Hong Kong Optical Fair, Milan MIDO, Paris SILMO, Beijing and Shanghai optics fair to promote the Hong Kong optical industry. In February 2020, HKOMA applied the Hong Kong SAR Government project fund to arrange a 100-square-meter pavilion to showcasing the Hong Kong eyewear design products in the Russian International Optics Fair. However, no international optical exhibitions can be held afterward till now under the influence of the epidemic. HKOMA could only try efforts to keep in touch with the global counterparts and magazines of the eyewear industry, to share their information about the industry/market/product on the HKOMA Facebook with members.
HKOMA is maintaining contact and exchanges with the various associations in mainland optical industry, including: Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Jiangxi, Wenzhou and Chongqing. The China Optometric & Optical Association (COOA) is our close partner as well. HKOMA has been the supporting organization of the Beijing and Shanghai Optics Fair over the years. Still under the challenge of the new crown epidemic quarantine measures, COOA successfully held the Shanghai Optics Fair in early May this year. Ms. Vanessa Chan, the former vice president and the current committee member of HKOMA, on behalf of our Association, turned up the fair to present the congratulations to COOA. Vanessa had joined the opening ceremony of the exhibition and the VIP networking meeting. She also exchanged the opinions and follow-up sharing with COOA and the counterparts from various regions in Mainland, for the subject of developing a series of drafting standards on eyewear products and its material specifications for the market in China.
We are also working closely with Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) in enhancing the technical capability of the industry. The Council has assisted HKOMA successfully to obtain the HKSAR Government subsidies applied on our various development projects all along the way. In last year, HKPC held a number of webinars for workshops and training courses on production regulations, and product design improvement etc. Among them, the project of established from March 2018 till mid-2020 completed, had just won the Hong Kong Industry Awards 2021 (HKIE MIS Industry Award 2021) - Bronze Innovation Award of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers on 31st July this year. I am honored to be invited by the Institution as a representative of HKOMA to attend the ceremony and accepted the award. The most important of these is the sharing speeches by representatives of the gold award winners. The successful cases of jewelry brand chain store and the Chinese medicine enterprise establishing reindustrialization system in Hong Kong gave me inspiration and thought about whether it could cite in the development of the optical industry? HKPC has been appointed by the HKSAR Government as a support platform to promote the re-industrialization in Hong Kong. How should our manufacturers move toward the development of industry and meet the trade models in the new era? I hope that HKPC would provide us with further relevant information sharing in the near future.
Looking forward, in the work of promoting the development of the industry, HKOMA needs to lead the industry to pay attention on keeping up with market needs, optimizing the business operating system, making corresponding cost management and flexible cooperation etc. All these are the basics for the development of the new era and also the key to maintaining corporate profitability.
Finally, I would like to sincerely thank the executive committee and all members of HKOMA, and the cooperative organizations for their supports. Since I was elected as the President of HKOMA in 2010, it has been served for 8 years till now. During the period, I have accumulated valuable experience and hope to continue to share and work hard in the future affairs of HKOMA and the development of Hong Kong optical industry. Wish you all healthy and happy.
(For the Speech in Chinese:
https://www.hkoptical.org.hk/news/HKOMA%20New%20Executive%20Committee_2021_2023_CN.pdf )