CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

The 10th Annual General Meeting of The Association of
Registered Fire Service Installation Contractors of Hong Kong Limited

Honourable guests, dear members, good evening

I am pleased in presenting the annual report on behalf of the 10th Council of The Association of Registered Fire Service Installation Contractors of Hong Kong Limited.

Starting from the 9th Council, the term of the Council has been changed to two years. Therefore, unlike last year the 10th Council shall not hand over their duties for the operation of the Association to the new Council until next year this time.

The 10th 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
Fai Tak Engineering Co., Ltd. Francis M.F.Tang Director
Guardian Fire Engineers & Con. Ltd. Ken C.K.Poon Director
Johnson Controls H.K. Ltd. Charles Law Director
Mansion Fire Engineering Co., Ltd. M. T. Law Director
Ryoden Engineering Co., Ltd. Eric K.Y. Lai Director
Siemens Building Technologies (HK/China) Alex L.C.Chu Director
Shun Yick & Co., Ltd. Rudolf K. Tam Director
Tridant Engineering Co., Ltd. Michael M.K. Lam Director

To ensure that the association is to be operated effectively, we started to plan an organizational change in 2000 in order to cope with the future challenges. The Association has completed its organizational change in 2002. The 10th Council set up 12 committees. Each committee, which is headed by a Council member as the chairman of the committee, handles different functions and operations of the Council. Committee chairmen are required to submit a written report to the Council at monthly Council meeting.

 

The 12 committee are as follows:

Newsletter and Internet Committee
1. Mr. Raymond Tsui
(Chairman of Committee)		 Jardine Technical Services
2. Mr. Simon Tsang Chubb Hong Kong Ltd.
3. Mr. Francis Tsang External member
4. Mr. Walter Siu Chubb Hong Kong Ltd.
5. Mr. Wilson Yau Honeywell Ltd.
6. Ms. Kathy Li Administrator of FSICA
Admin & Finance Committee
1. Mr. Samuel Leong Yue Sang Eng. Ltd.

 

Training Committee
1. Mr. Francis Tang
(Chairman of Committee)		 Fai Tak Engineering Ltd
2. Mr. Y. B. Luk Siemens Building Technologies (HK/China) Ltd.
3. Mr. Eric Lai Ryoden Engineering Co., Ltd
4. Mr. C.S. Lam External member
5. Mr. Michael Lam Tridant Eng. Co. Ltd
6. Mr. Tommy Leung External member
7. Mr. Robin Li Johnson Controls H.K. Ltd
8. Mr. Albert Tang External member
9. Mr. Wicky Lo ATAL Engineering Ltd
10. Mr. Simon Tsang Chubb Hong Kong Ltd.

 

Legal & Contract Committee
1. Mr. Michael Lam Tridant Eng. Co. Ltd.
2. Mr. Tommy Poon Guardian Fire Engineers & Con. Ltd.

 

Membership Committee
1. Mr. M. T. Law Mansion Fire Engineering Co. Ltd.

 

Safety Committee
1. Mr. Charles Law Johnson Controls Hong Kong Ltd.

 

Recreation Committee
1. Mr. Ken Poon Guardian Fire Engineers & Con. Ltd.

 

Architectural Services Department Liaison Committee
1. Mr. Peter Lam Chubb Hong Kong Ltd.

 

Housing Department Liaison Committee
1. Mr. Eric Lai Ryoden Engineering Co., Ltd.
2. Mr. Michael Lam Tridant Engineering Co. Ltd.

 

Federation of Electrical and Mechanical Contractors Ltd. Liaison members
1. Mr. Peter Lam Chubb Hong Kong Ltd.
2. Mr. Lee Wing Shing Jardine Technical Services
3. Mr. Tommy Poon Guardian Fire Engineers & Con. Ltd.
4. Mr. Eric Yung Lik Kai Engineering Co. Ltd.

 

Chairmen and members of the 12 committees worked very hard in particular with such difficult business environment for the Association. Thank you all chairmen and committee members.

I would also like to request our members join me to thank the friends of the Association, who join the different committees as external members to devote their valuable time and efforts to help the Association to grow.

1. Mr. Albert Tang
2. Mr. Kevin Yau
3. Mr. Tommy Leung
4. Mr. C.S.Lam
5. Mr. Robin Li
6. Ms. Sophia Koo
7. Mr. Francis Tsang

I shall report to you the operations and achievements of the Association in this year in a minute. Before I do this, I request our members thank all 10th Council Members for their contributions and all other co-operated members for their supports and contribution.

 

Members

In year 2002/2003, we have 73 Company Members which represents over 80% active Fire Services Installation Contractors in Hong Kong. Two (2) members retired and eight (8) new members joined the Association this year.

2001/2002 2002/2003
Affiliate Members 8 10
Full Members 59 63
Total 67 73

I would like to welcome our new members.

1 Champion Metro Ltd.
2 Chung Hing Fire Prevention Engineering Ltd.
3 Chung Tai Roller Shutters Co. Ltd.
4 Express Engineering & Trading Co.
5 Hong Lee Plumbing Services Co.
6 Lap Fung Fire Engineering Co. Ltd.
7 Saneco Technology Limited
8 Well United Fire Services Eng. Co. Ltd.

 

Activities

Training

The Training Committee organized three (3) training courses for Class 3 contractor examination and one (1) training course for basic knowledge of emergency generator maintenance. Thank you, Committee Chairman – Mr. Francis Tang.

I must mention the important step that we have made. Starting from this academic year, the VTC provided the 1st fulltime basic craftsman course of fire service installation. 20 students enrolled this course. It is a small but important step of our industry. We all recognized that a fulltime course is a door and a formal channel to recruit new blood for an industry.

Recreation

The Recreation Committee started the 1st golf activity of the Association in last December and followed its successful track record in August 2003 with over 50 participants joining the 2nd golf tournament.

Committee Chairman – Mr. Ken Poon helped the Association to prove to our peers that fire people also golf.

International links

The Association established two important international links last year.

We hosted a briefing session for two fire officers from Shanghai Fire Department and over twenty delegates from different fire companies in August. We have planned to visit our friends in Shanghai on 24 October 2003. Members, who are interested in knowing more about the fire industry of Shanghai, should not miss this event.

The Association also established an USA relationship. In last November, the Association briefed the US & Foreign Commercial Service of American Consulate General and over ten US delegates the fire market situation of Hong Kong at a breakfast briefing.

Technical

The Technical Committee is responsible the most important issue of the Association- installation standard and FS inspection requirement. The members of the Technical Committee participated five (5) FSI Inspection Procedures Working Group meeting to agree and establish installation and inspection guidelines and standards. If I remember well, one of the important achievements of the Technical Committee in 2002/2003 was that the new requirement on under duct sprinklers would not affect the projects of which their building plans were submitted before 1 Feb 2003.

Committee Chairman – Mr. Wicky Lo shall report more details to you in a minute.

Safety

The Association has joined The Hong Kong Federation of Electrical and Mechanical Contractors to hold an E&M industry safety walk in November 2003. I request your full supports to this event. It is the 1st major safety event held by the E&M industry.

Housing 

Housing Committee has the heaviest workload amongst all committees of the Association. Therefore, two Council members co-head this committee. Thank you, Mr. Eric Lai and Mr. Michael Lam.

A fulltime office

In order to serve our members better, we committed to hold a fulltime office at the last year AGM.

We have been operating a fulltime office since last December. I would like to introduce to you the administrator of the Association, M/s Kathy Li.

Legal & Contract

The Legal and Contract Committee works very hard with its counter part of the Hong Kong Federation of Electrical and Mechanical Contractors to ensure our members could work under a comparative better contractual environment. Thank you, Mr. Tommy Poon and Mr. Michael Lam.

Review and Outlook

Comparing with 2001, the total floor of new buildings with Consent to commence work of 2002 again dropped 8.2%. The following table indicates that volume decrease has been slowing down in 2002.

Unit in ‘000sq.m 1999 2000 2001 2002 2001 Vs 2002
Q1 950 727 557 229
Q2 174 285 372 418
Q3 749 528 187 368
Q4 550 583 378 356
Full Year 2,423 2,123 1,494 1,371 -8.2%

In addition to the volume decrease, the Building Services Tender Price Index (BSTPI) also indicated that the average tender price dropped from 112 of 2001 to 102 of 2002.

If total floor of new buildings with Consent to commence work is recognized as a 12 months leading index of building service business, then it is forecasted that the total market size of 2003 would decrease at least 16%.

Although we have yet seen a significant rebound at the business scene, I do believe that our members being the cream of the cream could survive even at such difficult economic environment.

Finally, I must say thank you for all your supports to the Association last year, and wish you fruitful business in coming months and years. Enjoy your time and the dinner. Thank you.

 

Peter O K Lam
Chairman
The Association of Registered Fire Service
Installation Contractors of Hong Kong Limited
3 October 2003