SUCCESS
E-newsletter
20 September 2023
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The Support and Consultation Centre for SMEs (SUCCESS) run by the Trade and Industry Department (TID) provides small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with free business information and consultation services.
Our website: https://www.success.tid.gov.hk/en_landing.html
Our email: success@tid.gov.hk
Our customer hotline:（852）2398 5133
(Service hours of hotline and counters: Monday to Friday 8:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m. & 1:30 p.m.-5:45 p.m., other than public holidays)
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"Four-in-One" Integrated Services of SMEs Centres
To strengthen support for SMEs and to raise SMEs' awareness of the various funding schemes and support services, the TID consolidated the services of the existing four SMEs centres, namely, the "SUCCESS" under the TID, the "SME Centre" under the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the "SME One" under the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) and the "TecONE" under the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), in October 2019 to provide one-stop "Four-in-One" integrated services for SMEs. Enterprises can obtain business information, funding schemes information and advisory services, etc. at any of the centres. In addition, a web portal called "SME Link" is also established for SMEs to access information and support services provided by the four SMEs centres and government departments from a single online platform.
The Government provides over 40 funding schemes with different funding scopes, amounts and requirements to promote and support the development of enterprises and industries in Hong Kong. The "Government Funding Schemes" web page of the SME Link features information on these 40+ funding schemes, including overview and useful hyperlinks. The web page's search tool supports multiple search filters to facilitate enterprises identifying suitable funding schemes.
The "Events & Activities" of the SME Link facilitates enterprises to obtain information on activities organised by the four SMEs centres and various government departments, including seminars, workshops, exhibitions, conferences, training courses, etc., from a single platform, and also provides relevant links to facilitate registration.
What's New
"Four-in-One" Seminar Series
The four SMEs centres co-organise “Four-in-One” seminar series regularly. Themes of this seminar series in the second half of 2023 are “E-commerce”, “Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)” and “Funding Schemes”. The “TecONE” of the HKSTP would organise a webinar under this seminar series on 28 September 2023. Interested persons are welcome to register at the link below. Admission is Free.
Transform your Business with Web3 E-commerce (Webinar)
(This webinar will be live-streamed on 28 September 2023)
This webinar is held by the “TecONE” of the HKSTP. This webinar will share the current trends in Web3 development and some of the latest technologies that can help SMEs grow their business, as well as introduce the application details of the Technology Voucher Programme (TVP), with a view to assisting SMEs in achieving digital transformation and starting e-commerce businesses. (This webinar will be conducted in Cantonese.)
More Details and Registration
Promotional Flyer
SUCCESS Activities
How to Turn Business Ideas into Business Opportunities (Seminar)
(This seminar will be held by SUCCESS on 26 September 2023 at Trade and Industry Tower)
Transforming an idea into business is never an easy task. In this seminar, an experienced business advisor will explain how to minimise the risk of failure, covering topics on validating the feasibility of ideas, developing ideas into business concepts, and executing solid business plans. This seminar will also include interactive sharing and discussion sessions, with a view to assisting start-ups and SMEs in unleashing their creative potential and exploring new business opportunities. (This seminar will be conducted in Cantonese.)
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SUCCESS-supported Activities
Leadership & Management Seminar Series 2023 (Tesla and Lululemon)
(This seminar will be held at the Pico Tower on 31 October 2023)
This seminar is organised by the Hong Kong Management Association. SUCCESS is one of the supporting organisations. In this seminar, business leaders will share their management wisdom and experience, with a view to enhancing the leadership and management skills of business executives and elevating the management standards of companies. (This seminar will be conducted in English.)
More Details
Registration
Intellectual Property Department: IP Training Programme "IP108 Mediation of IP Disputes"
(This course will be held at the VTC Tower, Wan Chai on 12 October 2023)
This course is co-organised by the Intellectual Property Department (IPD), the Hong Kong Mediation Centre and the International Dispute Resolution & Risk Management Institute. The Department of Justice is the supporting organisation and the Institute of Professional Education And Knowledge (PEAK) is the implementation partner. This course aims to enhance the participants’ understanding of and promote the advantages of using mediation in resolving intellectual property (IP) related disputes. Participants will receive a certificate upon completion of the training course. (The medium of instruction will be Cantonese.)
Interested participants may first enroll in the "IP Manager Scheme PLUS" for free by filling out an online form to get priority in course registration. Registration fee for the course is waived for members of the Scheme.
More Details
Registration
2023 Guangdong/Hong Kong Seminar on Intellectual Property and the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) (Huizhou): “Innovation and Development of Small and Medium Enterprises in the Greater Bay Area: Demand and Supply of Intellectual Property Professional Services”
(This seminar will be held in Huizhou on 27 September 2023)
This seminar is co-organised by the IPD of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), the HKTDC, the Guangdong Administration for Market Regulation (Guangdong Intellectual Property Administration) and the People’s Government of Huizhou City. This seminar aims to assist SMEs in Guangdong and Hong Kong to develop effective IP strategies in IP protection and management (including IP commercialisation) so as to better capitalise on the opportunities offered by the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Greater Bay Area), promote development of innovation and enhance their competitiveness in the international market. (This seminar will be conducted in Putonghua.)
More Details (in Chinese only)
TID holds roving exhibition to celebrate 20th anniversary of CEPA signing
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), the TID is staging a roving exhibition until March 2024 at different locations. Members of the public are invited to visit.
A spokesman for the TID said, "As the most liberal free trade agreement of the Mainland, CEPA fully demonstrates the country's continuous and staunch support for Hong Kong. Through CEPA, Hong Kong has been a testing ground for the opening up of the country. CEPA has not only embodied the successful implementation of the "one country, two systems" principle in Hong Kong, but has also reinforced Hong Kong's unique status and advantages of enjoying strong support from the country and being closely connected to the world."
Under the theme "Mutual Benefit Continuous Development", the exhibition showcases to different quarters of the community how CEPA has created unprecedented business opportunities for various industries and sectors, promoted economic and trade integration of the Mainland and Hong Kong, and played an active role in the country's reform and opening up. Through this exhibition, the public can look back on the development and achievements of CEPA over the past two decades, and look forward to more promising opportunities to be brought to Hong Kong by CEPA. The major statistical information of the 20 years' achievements of CEPA is in the Annex.
The spokesman expressed gratitude to all quarters of the community for supporting CEPA over the years. Looking ahead, the HKSAR Government will continue to actively seek to further enrich CEPA's content and assist the trade in fully utilising its preferential measures, striving to foster prosperous and complementary development of the economy of the two places, and enable Hong Kong to integrate more comprehensively into the national development.
For details and schedule of the roving exhibition, please visit the TID's website (www.tid.gov.hk/CEPA20/en) or call 2398 5667 for enquiry.
For relevant press release, please visit https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202309/12/P2023091100571.htm.
The 10th Anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative
Welcoming Ceremony for Young People employed under Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Scheme held in Guangzhou on 13 September 2023
The Labour Department (LD), together with the Human Resources and Social Security Department of Guangdong Province and the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the People's Government of Guangdong Province, held the Welcoming Ceremony for Young People employed under the Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Scheme at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Guangdong) Innovation and Entrepreneurship Incubation Base in Guangzhou on 13 September 2023. The welcoming ceremony witnessed young people of Hong Kong starting their careers in the Greater Bay Area.
The Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Cheuk Wing-hing, in his speech said that the report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2022 pointed out, "A nation will prosper only when its young people thrive. China's young people of today are living in a remarkable time. They have an incomparably broad stage on which to display their full talents, and they have incomparably bright prospects of realising their dreams." He pointed out that as demonstration of the country's high-quality development, the Greater Bay Area provides one of the important stages in cultivating young talent. The Hong Kong Government is committed to motivating Hong Kong young people to participate in the development of the Greater Bay Area, contributing their best to serve the need of the region.
During the ceremony, the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, reviewed the achievements of the pilot Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Scheme in 2021. The feedback from both the participating enterprises and young people regarding the scheme was favourable. The Government regularised the scheme on 1 March 2023 and launched a number of enhancement measures including commissioning service providers to strengthen support tailor-made for employed young people on the Mainland to help them adapt to the work environment.
As of the first week of September 2023, the LD has received more than 2 000 job vacancies from 220 enterprises. To enable more enterprises and young people to participate in the scheme, the Government announced on 6 September 2023 that the application period for this year's scheme will be extended to 31 December 2023, allowing more enterprises with operations both in Hong Kong and the Mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area to participate. Participating enterprises shall employ eligible young people in accordance with Hong Kong laws, offer them a monthly salary of not less than HK$18,000 and station them in the Greater Bay Area's Mainland cities to work and receive on-the-job training. The Government will grant a monthly allowance of HK$10,000 for up to 18 months to enterprises for each young person they employ. Enterprises can submit job vacancies through the scheme's website (www.jobs.gov.hk/gbayes).
Young people participating in the scheme should be Hong Kong residents who are lawfully employable in Hong Kong and awarded bachelor's degrees or above from 2021 to 2023. Job vacancies under the scheme, upon the LD's vetting, have been uploaded to the scheme's website for Hong Kong young people to apply for. For details of the scheme, please visit the scheme's website or call the hotline 2969 0446/2969 0460.
For relevant press release, please visit https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202309/13/P2023091300239.htm.
2023 Maker in China SME Innovation and Entrepreneurship Global Contest - Hong Kong Chapter successfully held
The Maker in China SME Innovation and Entrepreneurship Global Contest - Hong Kong Chapter (MiCHK) 2023 Final was held at Cyberport on 13 September 2023. Dai3mimi Health-Tech Limited, Datality Lab Limited and Calandex Innovation and Technology (HK) Company Limited won Champion, First Runner-up and Second Runner-up honours respectively. They will represent Hong Kong to compete in the Global Final Contest of the Maker in China 2023 to be held in October 2023 in Guangzhou.
Speaking at the MiCHK 2023 Final, the Government Chief Information Officer, Mr Tony Wong, said that the MiCHK has always been a stepping stone for Hong Kong start-ups and SMEs to expand into the Greater Bay Area market, and that numerous previous winning teams have successfully entered the Greater Bay Area market through this platform. The Central Government announced the Development Plan for Shenzhen Park of Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone in August 2023, which aims to drive the high-quality innovation and technology (I&T) development of the Greater Bay Area and inject new impetus into the collaboration between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Mr Wong encouraged the participating teams to continue to strive for self-enhancement in the area of I&T, to seize the opportunity to integrate into the overall development of the country and to contribute to the development of the country and the Greater Bay Area.
The MiCHK 2023 attracted 148 local innovation and entrepreneurship projects which cover 10 different I&T fields, namely fintech; artificial intelligence and big data; internet of things; next generation information technology; industrial internet and advanced manufacturing; biomedicine and biotechnology; new materials; new energy, energy saving and environmental protection; smart living, mobility and healthcare; and digital entertainment and Web 3.0 applications. The top 10 finalists had one-on-one business matching sessions with investors and enterprises from the Greater Bay Area on 13 September 2023, and were given opportunities to join different incubation and acceleration programmes and exhibitions to promote their products and services to different regions through various platforms. For more details about the contest, please visit www.smeiegc.hk.
The MiCHK 2023 is jointly organised by the China Centre for Promotion of SME Development of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China (MIIT), the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer of the HKSAR Government, the Department of Youth Affairs of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government (LOCPG) in the HKSAR, and the China International Cooperation Association of SMEs, and formulated by Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited (Cyberport Company), the Angel Investment Foundation and the Chamber of Commerce of Guangzhou Industrial Parks. With the support of the Guangzhou Municipal Industry and Information Technology Bureau, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the People's Government of Guangzhou Municipality and the People's Government of Guangzhou Nansha District, this is the fifth time the regional chapter has taken place in Hong Kong.
Guests attending the MiCHK 2023 on 13 September 2023 included Deputy Director of the SME Bureau of MIIT Ms Jia Hongwei; Deputy Director General of the China Centre for Promotion of SME Development of MIIT Mr Feng Xu; Deputy Director General of the Department of Youth Affairs of the LOCPG in the HKSAR Professor Song Lai; Deputy Secretary General of the Guangzhou Municipal Government and Director of Guangzhou Municipal Industry and Information Technology Bureau Mr Gao Yuyue; and the Chief Executive Officer of the Cyberport Company, Mr Peter Yan.
For relevant press release, please visit https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202309/13/P2023091300430.htm.
HKMA published joint report on Project Sela
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), together with the Bank of Israel (BOI) and the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub (BISIH) Hong Kong Centre published a joint report, titled "Project Sela – An accessible and secure retail CBDC ecosystem", at a report launch conference hosted by the BOI in Tel Aviv on 12 September 2023 (Tel Aviv time).
As the first collaborative project between the two central banks on the fintech front, Project Sela demonstrated the technical feasibility of a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) architecture that can promote competition and innovation in digital payments by allowing non-bank payment intermediaries to connect directly to the CBDC ledger of the central bank. Leveraging distributed ledger technology (DLT), a proof-of-concept prototype was developed to showcase how the technical implementation of the proposed architecture can incorporate strict cybersecurity, legal and policy requirements.
Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA, Mr Howard Lee, said, "We are pleased to have successfully completed this project with the BOI and BISIH Hong Kong Centre. This project provided valuable practical insights into the cybersecurity, technical and policy aspects of a retail CBDC implementation. While the HKMA has not yet made a firm decision on whether and when to introduce an e-HKD in Hong Kong, the outcomes of Project Sela will inform our on-going exploration. We hope that Project Sela will also benefit other central banks in their own evaluations of different retail CBDC architectures."
Deputy Governor of the BOI, Mr Andrew Abir, said, "Competition and innovation require a flourishing and open ecosystem with many different types of service providers. This was our initial goal in Project Sela as a proof-of-concept, and the project proved the feasibility of the model we had in mind. If central bank money is to go digital, cybersecurity is key, and the project provided an opportunity to discuss and study cybersecurity elements of CBDC with our partners. The BOI is honoured to collaborate with institutions that stand at the frontier of CBDC explorations."
The Head of the BISIH Hong Kong Centre,Ms Bénédicte Nolens, said, "Project Sela explored the feasibility of a CBDC system where the central bank operates the retail ledger and a new type of intermediary, called an Access Enabler, provides broader access to the CBDC, promoting competition and innovation. It showed that this can be achieved without compromising cybersecurity or the privacy of end users from the central bank."
The report is available on the HKMA website.
For relevant press release, please visit https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202309/12/P2023091200276.htm.
Topical Issues
Support Measures relating to Liquidity
In view of the cash-flow pressure of SMEs, SUCCESS has compiled a summary of support measures relating to liquidity.
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SME ReachOut
"SME ReachOut", a dedicated service team operated by HKPC, has commenced operation since 1 January 2020 to enhance SMEs' understanding of the Government's funding schemes, with a view to encouraging better utilisation of the support provided by the Government. The team would help SMEs identify funding schemes that suit their needs, while answering questions relating to applications.
Starting from October 2023, the Government will allocate funding to HKPC to enhance the services of “SME ReachOut”, including arranging visits to more chambers of commerce, commercial and industrial buildings and co-working spaces, and increasing the publicity in social media so as to step up the promotion of government funding schemes. At the same time, more one-on-one consultation sessions will be provided to assist SMEs in applying for government funding and building their capacities, and enhancing their competitiveness through leveraging new technologies.
On 10-11 October 2023, a “Tech + SME Sourcing Fair” will be held, being the first large-scale event under the enhanced services of “SME ReachOut”. Technology vendors would showcase digital solutions that could help enhance SMEs’ competitiveness and experts would explain the latest market trend of technology applications, so that SMEs could identify suitable digital solutions.
For further information or enquiries, please contact "SME ReachOut" Hotline / WhatsApp (Text Message Only) at 2788 6868 or email by sme_reachout@hkpc.org or visit https://www.hkpc.org/en/support-resource/sme-one/sme-reachout.
Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales (BUD Fund)
To further assist the trade in capturing business opportunities of post-epidemic recovery and in developing the huge domestic market of the Mainland and other markets outside Hong Kong with potential, "Easy BUD" was launched in June 2023 to expedite the processing of applications, thereby facilitating small and medium enterprises to expand their business swiftly. Under "Easy BUD", the application form, the requirements for supporting documents and the vetting arrangements have been simplified. The processing time of "Easy BUD" applications has been halved to within 30 working days as compared with general BUD applications.
HKPC as the BUD Fund implementation partner regularly organises seminars/webinars in order to enhance enterprises’ understanding of the BUD Fund, including "Easy BUD". For more details of the BUD Fund, please visit its website (https://www.bud.hkpc.org/en) or contact the HKPC at 2788 6088.
Upcoming event for September 2023 is as follows:
You are welcomed to join the seminar.
Corruption Prevention Advisory Service (CPAS) of ICAC
A good governance system is vital for SMEs' effective operation, and can help sustain their company image and hence counterparts' confidence in doing business with them. The Corruption Prevention Department of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has launched the Corruption Prevention Advisory Service (CPAS). The CPAS is a specialised unit dedicated to providing tailor-made, free and confidential corruption prevention advice on system control in common business areas such as procurement and staff administration. Enterprises can access its user-friendly web portal (https://cpas.icac.hk/EN/) for details of the services and to get timely and useful resources on corruption prevention such as staff code of conduct, corruption prevention guides and tools, case studies, quick tips and red flags.
To receive regular updates on corruption prevention, please click here to subscribe to the CPAS e-news.
Free IP Consultation Service
The IPD, supported by the Law Society of Hong Kong, now provides FREE One-On-One IP Consultation Service for SMEs. To obtain more information and/or apply for the Service, please visit IPD's dedicated website "Hong Kong – Regional IP Trading Centre": https://ip.gov.hk/en/home/consultation-service/index.html.
Business News
GDETO Newsletter
The latest issue of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Guangdong (GDETO) Newsletter has been published.
More Details (in Chinese only)
Commercial Information Circulars (CICs) of the Mainland
The TID issued a number of Commercial Information Circulars (CICs) on the Mainland's trade and economic rules and regulations. The latest CICs have been published.
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