香港要奮力自我提升

Today, there is a news about a trend that telco would move their call center back to Hong Kong from Mainland China. The reason behind is because people in China earn more, while Hong Kong people earn less than before. The gap between Hong Kong and Mainland China is getting smaller.

What I can see is that competitive edge of Hong Kong is disvanishing. In 70s to 80s, Hong Kong can still be a entreport or middle man for China trade. In 90s, due to Government policy, value property in Hong Kong grew at very high level rate, people can easily make money. And now, one year after the first ten-year celebration of handover, Hong Kong is slowly losing it position. How can Hong Kong keep growing?

Today, there are much more challenge than before. With much more opening policy between Taiwan and the Mainland, Hong Kong position is less and less. Some people say that when the two Chinese Government move closer, it creates another opportunities for Hong Kong since the overall market has been increased very much, although the market share is less. The market size is indeed bigger than before. However, to my little knowledge, I cannot see how Hong Kong can share any market in between. Why still need to via through Hong Kong to do business?

To drill down this thinking, there are some points in my mind. Firstly, the geographic location is not as good as Taiwan. Secondly, Hong Kong internal market is at tiny size. This makes Hong Kong cannot create products for herself but need to compete in the world market. In other words, there is less opportunity for grow since there are too much competition. Thirdly, new generation of Hong Kong are not like people in China and Taiwan who are much outgoing, or they are used to work far from home.

In the past, Hong Kong people working in Hong Kong to serve the world. In the future, most properly, Hong Kong people might need to work in other countries or any places in Mainland China or even Taiwan to serve the world. However, I think, work hard, work efficient and fast are still the cutting edges of Hong Kong people. Let's see what happen in coming 10 years.

The following news is extracted from Ming Pao dated on 04 July 2008.

明報專訊】電訊業在內地所設立的客戶中心，有迹象開始回流香港，這個轉變極具象徵意義，因為如果趨勢持續，本港固然會增加一定數量的工作機會，卻也反映本港和內地的差距進一步縮窄。這種情况，應該視為一個警號，催迫着香港要奮力自我提升，說明如果香港停滯不前，有朝一日會被其他內地城市趕上甚至超前。

短期增職位 長遠失優勢
從1980年代開始，由於內地成本低廉，本港先是製造業陸續北移，經濟結構向服務業轉型，發展至1990年代中以來，很多銀行、服務業、零售商甚至飲食業，基於營運需要而設立的電話客戶中心，都搬到內地或東南亞，其中以深圳 和廣州最多。不過，近期CSL耗資在屯門 購入工廈單位，用作成立新客戶服務中心，預計約聘用200人，另外CSL發言人坦言會考 慮把內地的客戶中心搬回香港。客戶服務中心協會則認為，迹象顯示客戶中心開始回流香港，有可能成為趨勢。

各個機構的客戶中心回流，原因不盡相同。有基於服務需要，包括客戶中心的工作轉型，由以往只是收電話傳遞信息或回答簡單查詢，到現在則要推銷服務和產品，本地口音的親和力，有助提高銷售額。另外是遇到內地的長假期，客戶中心雖然不會停止服務，多少也要讓員工放假，但客戶的查詢不會特別減少。此外，若有客戶不懂如何前往有關公司的維修中心或零售店，需要客戶服務中心的職員教搭車的話，亦一定是香港員工較優勝。

此外租金和薪金差距縮窄，應該是重要原因。過去客戶中心聘請一名內地員工，大學畢業學歷，薪金約1000元，現在已經增至4000至5000元，與在本港聘請中學畢業的員工，薪金差距已經不大，加上內地近年保障僱員的勞保、社保和勞動法等規定，使得僱主成本大增。另外在內地設客戶中心，要租用商業大廈，與本港在工廠大廈就可以營運，租金成本差不多。客戶中心主要是基於這些原因回流。

本港經濟朝着高增長、高增值和高附加值的方向發展，現在學歷要求不高、缺少附加值和技術含量低的客戶中心回流，其實與香港經濟的發展方向背道而馳。這樣的轉變說明廣東經濟急速發展，人民收入增加，生活好轉，值得欣喜；本港則因為這類工作回流，增加就業機會，對於一些人來說是好消息。不過總的而言，此事對於香港應該是響起警號。

不進則退 香港必須力爭上游

這些年來廣東發展勢頭迅猛，經濟欣欣向榮，今日廣東與30年前比較，已非吳下阿蒙，現在發展到電話客戶中心也要回流香港，究竟是廣東發展太快抑或香港進展太慢？從實際情况看來，應該與兩者都有關。這些年來，香港原有支柱產業進展有限，一些行業（例如貨櫃運輸）的優勢，也已經拱手讓出；回歸11年以來，本港經濟沒有新的增長點，對此，有識之士早已引以為憂。

回歸之後，有人提出過香港的4個5年城市階段論，主要「預測」回歸後第一個5年，香港是中國最好的城市；第二個5年，香港是中國最好城市的其中一個；第三個5年，香港是中國比較好的城市；第四個5年，香港是中國比較好的城市的其中一個。這個「預測」如果成真，是大喜事，因為這樣的中國將會富裕到不得了；但是從香港本位而言，如果漠視客戶中心回流所顯示此消彼長的實質，則到哪一個第五年，世人驀然發現，香港只是中國其中一個城市而已，也就不以為怪了。