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SCMP Reporter

Hong Kong designers and their industry partners will have a new meeting place when the Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC) is officially opened on September 13.

The opening, a milestone in the history of the design business in Hong Kong, is one of the main events in the Business of Design Week, which includes an array of exhibitions, seminars and award programmes.

Under the auspices of the Federation of Hong Kong Designers, local design associations have joined hands to promote the SAR as an internationally recognised hub of innovation and creative talent.

'We are always interested in any area that adds value to our manufacturing businesses, and design is a very important element in that sense,' says Hong Kong Federation of Industries chairman, Victor Lo Chung-wing.

Mr Lo, who is also chairman of HKDC's board of governors, believes he is one of the few local industrialists with a background in design, and he is widely regarded as a champion in promoting design within the manufacturing sector.

His close involvement in design has no doubt made a difference to the strategic thinking at Gold Peak Group, the Asian multinational industrial conglomerate he heads as chairman and chief executive.

Mr Lo joined the family company in the 1970s just as the business was moving from original equipment manufacturing towards original design manufacturing.

By the 1980s, the company was promoting its own brand names.

Now it has manufacturing, research and development, marketing and distribution operations in more than 10 countries.

But why has Hong Kong industry in general been relatively slow off the mark?

Mr Lo points out that Hong Kong has had a struggle because of a small domestic market and its prior status as a duty-free port.

He believes that most of the world's successful brand names started with a substantial domestic market.

'It is natural when a brand is unknown and you have to start from ground zero. It is a lot easier to do it in your own country than go to an overseas market,' Mr Lo says.

Local manufacturers were also disadvantaged by the lack of import barriers.

However, Mr Lo believes that Hong Kong already has a reputation as an important design centre for the region.

So is it time to take on the world? The new Hong Kong Design Centre is being seen by many industry leaders as an engine for growth and development.

'I think the HKDC's main mission is to promote Hong Kong's design industry, domestically and internationally, to help local designers and design companies become more united and better organised, and to promote more effective interfaces between the design industry and their clients,' Mr Lo says.



Purpose-built centre offers stage for HK