CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
The 9th Annual General Meeting of The Association of Registered Fire Service Installation Contractors of Hong Kong Limited
Dear members, good evening
I am pleased in submitting this report on behalf of the Council of The Association of Registered Fire Service Installation Contractors of Hong Kong Limited.
The 9th Council shall hand over their duty for the operation of the Association to the new Council in next week.
Before I report to you the results of this year and our expectation on the new Council, I sincerely thank all 9th Council Members for their contributions and all other co-operated members for their supports.
The 9th Council Members are:
| Council Member | Representative | Position |
| Chubb Hong Kong Ltd. | Peter O.K. Lam | Chairman |
| ATAL Engineering Ltd. | Wicky W.K. Lo | Vice Chairman |
| Jardine Technical Services Ltd. | Lee Wing-Shing | Hon. Secretary |
| Yue Sang Engineering Ltd. | Samuel C.K. Leong | Hon. Treasurer |
| Honeywell Ltd. | Wilson Yau | Director |
| Johnson Controls H.K. Ltd. | Charles Law | Director |
| Mansion Fire Engineering Co., Ltd. | Tommy Ho | Director |
| Ryoden Engineering Co., Ltd. | Eric K.Y. Lai | Director |
| Saiton Engineering Ltd. | Leung Wai Kong | Director |
| Shun Hing Engineering Contracting CO., LTD | Eric Yung | Director |
| Shun Yick & Co., Ltd. | Rudolf K. Tam | Director |
| Tridant Engineering Co., Ltd. | Michael M.K. Lam | Director |
On behalf of the Council of the Association, I would like to thank the Chief Editor of Association’s newsletter – Mr. Raymond Tsui of Jardine Technical Services for his great contributions to the association in the past years.
Finally, and as what I am used to say in the previous Annual General Meetings of the Association, I request all of you to thank our very helpful Administrator Ms. Winky Tsoi, for her valuable time and efforts devoted to the Association.
Members
In year 2001/2002, we have 67 Company Members which represents 80% active Fire Services Installation Contractors in Hong Kong. 5 members retired and 6 new members joined the Association this year.
I would like to welcome our new members.
- Alliance Contracting Co., Ltd.
- Crystalitre Electrical Engineering Co.
- Technicon Engineering Ltd.
- Thorn Security (Hong Kong) Ltd.
- Viking Supply Network (HK) Ltd.
- Wise Engineering Co., Ltd.
| 2000/2001 | 2001/2002 | |
| Affiliate Members | 8 | 8 |
| Full Members | 58 | 59 |
| Total | 66 | 67 |
This year, The Council followed the changes that we had planned in the last council year; we had set up three Working Groups, namely:
- The Internal Affairs Working Group leaded by Mr. Samuel Leong
- The Technical and Training Working Group leaded by Mr. Wicky Lo and
- The External Affairs Working Group leaded by me
The Council performed the functions of the Association through these three working groups.
Internal Affairs
The Internal Affairs Working Group included the following Committees:
- Committee for the Administration, with the supports from Ms Winky Tsoi, the Administrator of the Association, Mr. Samuel Leong was responsible for the day-to-day administration of the Association.
- Committee for newsletter and Web site, I must once again convey thanks to our Chief Editor Mr. Raymond Tsui and the other members of the newsletter and Web Site Committee, Mr. Samuel Leong, Mr. Walter Siu of Chubb, Mr. Winky Tsoi, Miss Sophia Koo of MK Electric and Mr. Wilson Yau for their contributions, through the newsletter and the Web Site the Association has built an invisible but very strong linkage between the Association, our members and our peers in the industry.
- Committee for Public Relationship leaded by Mr. Wilson Yau organized social functions for the Association, I am sure all of you who joined the dinner gathering for “Snake’s temptation” held in 2002 still remember the snakes’ favours.
Technical and Training
- Committee on FS Inspection Procedures Working Group, having been undertaking the task since 1986, this Working Group expands its scope of work from helping the Authority to establish FS Inspection procedures to producing new Codes of practice and to amending international codes for Hong Kong’s application. The members of the Committee are Mr. Wicky Lo (the Committee Chairman), Mr. Simon Tsang of Chubb Hong Kong Limited, Mr. Michael Lam, Mr. PS Ho (retired as committee member in 2002) and Mr. Raymond Tsui.
- Committee on Skill Upgrading for workers was formed to support the Skill Upgrading program for the E&M industry; the Government represented by Education and Manpower Bureau, the trade associations, the training organizations and the workers’ unions ran the program. Mr. Wicky Lo and I are the Committee members. Three 52 hours Skill Upgrading programs for mechanical fire systems, electrical fire systems and maintenance of fire systems have been organized and stated in July 2002.
- Committee on Training ran a seminar for introduction of the organizational structure of NFPA and a seminar for maintenance of emergency generators in February 2002, and jointed-force with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for a 2 days training for supervision for working in confined space in April 2002.
External Affairs
The External Affairs Working Group included the following subcommittees:
- Committee for Liaison meeting with HKFSD, it was responsible for the quarterly formal meetings between the Association and HKFSD for exchange of views and for communication. The committee members are Mr. Peter Lam (Committee Chairman), Mr. Wicky Lo, Mr. W.S. Lee, Mr. Eric Lai and Mr. Michael Lam
- Nominated Representatives of the Association setting in the Council of The Hong Kong Federation of Electrical and Mechanical Services Contractors Limited (FEMC). The Association has three Nominated Representatives setting in the Council of FEMC, Mr. WS Lee, Mr. Tommy Poon of Guardian Fire Engineers and Consultants, Ltd. and me. FEMC, of which the Association is one of the six founding Associations, deals with the Government for policy related and cross disciplines matters for the E&M industry.
- Committee on the Review on the Registration System for Fire Service Installation Contractors. The review was started in December 2000, a Working Group, which includes the Association and other 16 relevant parties, is chaired by the Fire Service Department. The Working Group undertakes to review the current registration systems under the Fire Service (Installation Contractors) Regulations, Cap 95 Sub. Legislation and the Fire Service (Installation and Equipment) Regulations, Cap 95 Sub. Legislation. The 2nddraft Report was completed by the Working Group in March 2002, the Association collected the comments from the industry through an open forum held on 13 April 2002 and returned its comment to the Working Group on 18 May 2002. The members of the Committee are Mr. Wicky Lo, Mr. WS Lee, Mr. Raymond Tsui and I. I would like to extend my thanks to Mr. Rudolf K Tam, our council member and a senior member of the industry Mr. Tam Chau of Shun Yick, who joined the Committee as co-op members to attend the pre-meeting with Fire Service Department to support our voice regarding the bottom line of the Association. Our bottom line regarding the future changes on the registration system is that the Association would support any changes on the Registration Systems that would improve the overall quality of the industry and NOT affect the business of existing contractors.
- Committee on Housing Department liaison, the committee members are Mr. Eric Lai and Mr. Michael Lam. The Committee has been dealing with Housing Department for two years first through the channel of EMCA then the channel of FEMC to discuss contractual and technical matters. The Committee members have been contributing a lot of their valuable time for the Association to handle the increasing activities associated with the recent changes in the Housing Department.
About Economics
The tender volume of the 1st half-year of 2002 again dropped significantly. Table 1 below indicates that the new buildings with Consent to commence work in 2001 were 1,494,000sq.m, which was 29.63% lower than the 2000 figure, HK$2,123,000sq.m and 38.34% lower than the 1999 figure, 2,423,000sq.m. [1]
| Unit in ‘000sq.m | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | Changes 2000 Vs 2001 |
| Q1 | 950 | 727 | 557 | -23.38% |
| Q2 | 174 | 285 | 372 | +30.52% |
| Q3 | 749 | 528 | 187 | -64.58% |
| Q4 | 550 | 583 | 378 | -35.16% |
| Full year | 2,423 | 2,123 | 1,494 | -29.63% |
The Association had carried out the 2nd annual survey among its members, the survey looked into the change in terms of total amount quoted in the 1st half year of 2002 compared with the total amount quoted in the 1st half year of 2001. The total amount quoted includes the enquiries for upgrading and maintenance work as well as the bid tenders for new construction work. The purpose was to investigate and predict the trend of business of our industry.
The feedbacks from respondents revealed that comparing with the 1st half-year of 2001, the median of the change in terms of the total amount of enquiries for upgrading and maintenance work as well as the bid tenders for new construction work of 1st half year of 2002 was – 21.6%.
About Business
A further drop of 10.4 % has been recorded in the Building Services Tender Price Index (BSTPI) [2] in Q1 2002 (103) when it is compared with the BSTPI of Q1 2001 (115). The following table shows the details.
| Year | Quarter | BSTPI |
| 2000 | 1st | 122 |
| 2nd | 120 | |
| 3rd | 107 | |
| 4th | 112 | |
| 2001 | 1st | 115 |
| 2nd | 116 | |
| 3rd | 113 | |
| 4th | 106 | |
| 2002 | 1st | 103 |
Last year when I made my Chairman’s report by applying the figures of the 4th quarter of 2000, which was 112, for my forecast for the trend of year 2001, I said that” According to the trend of decrease in volume of new construction bids, further trimming of tender price may be seen in future.”
I use the same diagram, but with more updated figures, that I used in my last year chairman’s report to help me to project the profitability of the contracting business in near future. The averaged material and labour costs of Q1 2002 was 1748.7 [3], it dropped 1% comparing with the figure of Q1 2001, which was 1766.9. The diagram below illustrates the trend of labour and material cost.
I don’t have a crystal ball to tell what does the future economics look like and the profitability of the contracting business, however the above findings have just simply told us that we cut 10.4% on our prices in last year, but we could only cut 1% on our costs.
Ref:
[1] Work Bureau “Work Digest Issue No. 48, April 2002” Work Bureau of the Government of HKSAR, page 51
[2] Work Bureau “Work Digest Issue No. 48, April 2002” Work Bureau of the Government of HKSAR, page 58
[3] Work Bureau “Work Digest Issue No. 48, April 2002” Work Bureau of the Government of HKSAR, page 62
Again, I believe the year ahead still is very challenging, and only the best will win. The above statistic and analysis have just told and reminded us how good we should be in order to win and to grow our business in the future.
I wish our members would continue their success in the coming years.
The Organizational Changes
To ensure that the association will be operated effectively to cope with the future challenges, the 8th Council in Oct 2000 proposed that there should be a change on the structure of the council.
After having studied and rethinking about the organizational structures of the Association for two years, we held our Extraordinary General Meeting on 22 March 2002, when we passed special resolution to amend the Article 40, 44, 45 & 46 of the M&A of the Association to make important changes for the Association. With these amendments, the term of the Council shall be changed from currently one year to two years starting from the term of the next Council, the Association shall be allowed to set up working groups to operate the functions of the Association and to invite experts in the capacity of individual to work for the Association or even to lead the working groups of the Association.
Completing the amendment on the M&A of the Association is just a start of all these changes; the 9th Council has just sealed these tasks in an envelope and posted it to the next Council and the new working groups of the Association, whom I believe shall lead the Association to deal with all the real challenges ahead in the next term of the Council.
Finally, I hope all of you shall enjoy the dinner and this evening, thank you.
Peter O K Lam
Chairman
The Association of Registered Fire Service Installation Contractors of Hong Kong Limited
2 August 2002
