[Commentary] Recently, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Carrie Lam issued a new policy address in the Hong Kong Legislative Council.
The report pointed out that the convention and exhibition industry is an important part of Hong Kong as an international trade center.
In response to the impact of the epidemic, the SAR government is injecting momentum into the convention and exhibition industry through a funding scheme totaling more than 1 billion yuan, and expanding convention and exhibition facilities to consolidate and enhance Hong Kong's status as an international convention and exhibition hub.
[Explanation] A few days ago, Zhou Qiliang, vice president of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, said in an exclusive interview with China News Agency that the epidemic has had a huge impact on Hong Kong and the global exhibition industry.
Statistics show that from January 2020 to mid-2021, more than 4000 physical exhibitions around the world cannot be held.
Zhou Qiliang said that physical exhibitions are vital to Hong Kong's commerce industry.
The Hong Kong Book Fair, which closed successfully in July 2021, reopened after two years. It is of great significance and also kicked off the physical public exhibition in Hong Kong after the epidemic.
[Concurrent] Zhou Qiliang, Vice President of Hong Kong Trade Development Council
I have worked in the HKTDC for decades. Actually, I have faced many crises, but many crises are regional. This is the first time I have encountered this global crisis.
Therefore, many exhibitions are paused and there is no way to proceed.
According to our census, for those small and medium-sized enterprises, almost 40% of their orders in a year are from the physical exhibitions of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.
Therefore, the reopening of the physical exhibition is of great significance.
After we opened the book fair in July, in fact we immediately opened the jewelry show, and in August there was another food exhibition.
After the book fair was over, 830,000 people came in. It was very safe. This proved that Hong Kong is a relatively safe place, which can restart the economy and restart the exhibition.
[Commentary] Zhou Qiliang introduced that this year's book fair adopts a combination of online and offline models. Many of the more than 250 cultural activities held in the venue during the period were carried out simultaneously through the Internet platform.
[Concurrent] Zhou Qiliang, Vice President of Hong Kong Trade Development Council
Can it attract enthusiastic readers to participate in online lectures?
We are very confident, and we say we must do it, because otherwise friends in the mainland and friends from other parts of Asia will not be able to participate.
Even if they can't come over and buy books, they can still go online to listen to lectures.
The total number of readers of all previous lectures is estimated to be tens of thousands.
But this time, put all the seminars online, how many readers do you know?
It is 128,000 people.
[Explanation] In Zhou Qiliang's view, online and offline hybrid exhibitions will become the "new normal" of Hong Kong's convention and exhibition industry in the future.
As an institution dedicated to promoting Hong Kong's foreign trade, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council has been constantly striving to promote global business cooperation through technological means such as "cloud conventions" and artificial intelligence while the world is still being affected by the new crown epidemic.
[Concurrent] Zhou Qiliang, Vice President of Hong Kong Trade Development Council
We also use some technology, a method of automatic matching by artificial intelligence. The buyer's information and the supplier's information are automatically matched by artificial intelligence through a computer, and then they can also make an appointment to meet in the cloud.
After we did this, we found that there were 7,400 suppliers, contacted almost 390,000 buyers, and met them (on) online.
We have created 28,000 virtual conferences and cloud conferences. I dare not say that it can replace physical exhibitions.
So I believe that this physical and online exhibition is a big trend in the future.
[Explanation] In recent years, as consumers and companies have moved on the front line, the TDC also developed a purchasing website in 2000. The website has 130,000 suppliers and 2 million registered trade sellers worldwide. It creates trade inquiries every year. Approximately 20 million orders.
In October 2020, the TDC updated the platform again.
In addition to using artificial intelligence, new technologies such as image recognition and big data have also been added to help Hong Kong SMEs realize digital transformation.
[Concurrent] Zhou Qiliang, Vice President of Hong Kong Trade Development Council
Small and medium-sized enterprises are not too smart about e-commerce.
Sometimes after uploading product photos, the keyword used is incorrect.
When buyers want to search, they can’t search.
We also used a new technology called image recognition, which means that as soon as the supplier uploads a photo, the computer will automatically suggest some keywords, which are some keywords that buyers usually use, so In this way, your chances of successful pairing are much higher.
There is also a Dashboard (Business Intelligence Dashboard), which allows the supplier to know which photos of it have been viewed by the buyer in the past three months, so that he can further update and do better.
[Explanation] Based on the first year of the "14th Five-Year Plan", Zhou Qiliang bluntly stated that the current opportunities and challenges of Hong Kong businessmen coexist, how to seize the opportunities and give full play to the advantages of Hong Kong's business development and consolidate the unique position of Hong Kong's "eight centers". This is a problem that the Hong Kong Trade Development Council needs to face head-on for a period of time to come.
[Concurrent] Zhou Qiliang, Vice President of Hong Kong Trade Development Council
In the future, Hong Kong businessmen can enter the Greater Bay Area first, use the Greater Bay Area as a "bridgehead", and then enter the mainland market. Hong Kong has always been a business center for two-way financing.
Whether it is mainland companies going out, or foreign companies going to the mainland market, it is through the Hong Kong platform. I think the future will have even greater functions.
Because Hong Kong is a financial center, we are also ready to vigorously promote as a center for innovation and technology, as well as a trading center for intellectual property rights. Therefore, I believe that many foreign technology companies, if they want to lease their technology to mainland enterprises, It can also pass through the Hong Kong platform.
And if mainland enterprises want to invest in "One Belt One Road" countries, they will also consider using Hong Kong's financing services.
Reporter Fan Siyi, Li Yue, Liangyuan from Hong Kong
Editor in charge: [Li Ji]