United we stand, divided you fall

After a decade of accusing some of Hong Kong's largest businesses of being monopolists, the Consumer Council has a new message: we can help you.

It may seem a strange message, but new chairman Professor Andrew Chan Chi-fai is clear that the Consumer Council can help those normally considered its enemies become more competitive and even more profitable.

'I know a lot of business people, but not in a formal manner. I understand their opinions, their concerns, their headaches.' The 47-year-old professor of marketing at the Chinese University has a very different vocabulary from his predecessor, lawyer Anna Wu Hung-yuk.

His view is that of a free-market economist who believes businesses get leaner and fitter in a competitive, demanding marketplace - and by making the marketplace more competitive and demanding the Consumer Council is helping them.

'A monopoly will make a person or a firm get weak. Once the political environment changes, or maybe the economic situation changes, it is subject to challenge. And because it is not strong enough the company will become weaker and weaker.

'Of course, after some challenges, if the company is a decent one with good people it can improve the situation. But a monopoly is still not a good thing for a company.' Professor Chan points at the Consumer Council logo on the wall of his office in the council's headquarters in North Point, which shows a pair of traditional weighing scales, and imagines that the interests of consumers and businesses are on either side.

'If the balance is getting towards one party or the other it's not good for society.' This might come as a surprise to those who thought the logo represented justice, and the sole job of the Consumer Council was to try to get some for the small people in a society where large firms controlled petrol, piped gas supply, banking, transport, supermarkets, property development . . . the list goes on.