A front row view of the global competition

HONG KONG – The Hong Kong Trade Development Council’s (HKTDC) International ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Expo at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre is over, so we now had a little time to explore Hong Kong as I hadn’t been here for nine years. The first new thing we experienced at the Chep Lap Kok International Airport was when we arrived last Sunday and there was a man giving out handbills warning exiting passengers not to avail themselves of illegal or “colorum” cars-for-hire.

This only goes to show that even the best airport in the world (Hong Kong International was named as the “Best Airport in the World” by Forbes Magazine, besting Singapore’s Changi International Airport, now the world’s second best, according to the magazine) has similar problems with our airports. Who would expect this to be happening to the best of the best airports in the world? Of course, they’re the best simply because you can use a car-for-hire, taxicab, bus or the MTR to go to downtown Hong Kong, or by fastcraft if you’re going to Macau or Shenzhen.

In the evening, at exactly 8 p.m., we watched the now famous Hong Kong Light Show where the tall buildings on the waterfront and a few buildings across the channel in Tsim Tsa Tsui lighted up to the tune of dance music. This light show is probably the only one of its kind in the world. This gives tourists in hotel rooms facing the Hong Kong harbor a great view of this light show.

We were kind of lucky that the Empire Hotel in Causeway Bay where we billeted just opened a day before we checked in. So we sort of got a taste of a spanking new and very chic Hong Kong hotel, which had a feature that I have never seen in any hotel room before… a clear glass, which they call a “Magic Glass” on the bathroom that could be seen from your bedside. By a mere flick of the magic switch, voila… it turns into a smoke glass!

It was a short walk to the MTR station and so we tried that as well, as we were only two stops to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The instructions in using the MTR, as to where you wanted to go, were clear and in English. To find out how much you need to pay to your destination, you simply press the station on the map and put your money in the machine and it immediately tells you how much you need to pay to where you’re going. From Causeway Bay to Wan Chai, it was HK$4or P28. One feature I liked in their MTR was the glass wall that prevented passengers from falling (or committing suicide) onto an onrushing train.

As we were already done with our booth, it was time to roam around and visit the Electronics Show and what a huge show it was… everything electronic that you can think of, from High-Definition TVs and home theater projection systems, including portable ones that connect to your laptop, to MP3 players of various kinds, Bluetooth headphones, GPS navigation systems and hundreds of cellular phones all from China, virtual copies of iPhone and other name brands. Unfortunately major brands like Nokia, Sony Ericsson and those from the US were not there.

Call it a coincidence that I bumped into an old friend, Ray Altarejos, managing director of Global 9, a Whitney company, whom I hadn’t seen in the last 10 years. He was a very close friend of the late Sir Max Soliven, but he was representing his company, which is based in New York City. Though he operates call centers in Manila and Naga City, Ray is off to Chengdu, China because he heard that the support of the Chinese government is so enticing for call center operators that all you do is literally move into the center with your people.

Being in Hong Kong gave me a front row view of the fierce and cutthroat global competition. But what can the private sector do if the Chinese government supports their business sector not merely with incentives, but by building the business infrastructure for them? At the end of the day, we have to rely on our strengths and that is a good base of English-speaking Filipinos who are highly trainable and with a good work ethic. I know that there’s a plan to limit or stop the incentives given by the Board of Investments (BOI), but I would like to believe that it should not include the IT industry and that new frontier called “green industry,” where we can manufacture solar panels and mini windmills for home use, which would help us in our fight against climate change. Incidentally, I also bumped into former STAR man Rommel Ynion.

What I’ve learned in this trip is that, we can’t fight China when it comes to manufacturing products. That is China’s strength. But it doesn’t mean that we’ve lost the battle for global competitiveness. It’s merely a matter of focusing our attention on our strengths and that’s our people!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, “Straight from the Sky,” every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.