Mr Richard Elman, CEO of The Noble Group Richard Elman, CEO of The Noble Group in RTHK's "View from the Top" A leading Hong Kong businessman has called on the Government to make use of empty factory space to ease unemployment, and to be more "pro-active" in tackling the effects of the economic downturn. Speaking on RTHK's English language television programme, "View from the Top", Richard Elman, the founder and CEO of the SAR-based Noble Group, said: "I think there's a lack of strong positive concept from the government. I haven't heard many people come out and say: "Look this is a plan that we'd like to go forward with. This would solve that problem or help to solve that problem." But I think the government needs to be much more pro-active -- it's my personal opinion. It's pretty onerous, the comparison between Hong Kong and Singapore, and I really don't like it, but on the other hand, they've done some good things in Singapore as well. And I think one of the things they've done is they've attracted a lot of hi-technology industry there." It was also time to relax the rules on crossing the border with mainland China, said Mr. Elman, whose 16-year-old commodities trading and shipping group had a turnover last year of HK$14bn. He called for a "seamless" 24-hour-a-day border crossing: "What I do feel is, that I think that a lot of people in Hong Kong seem to be afraid of an influx of Chinese if the border is opened. I don't think so. I think they'd probably be surprised at maybe an outflow of Hong Kong people to China, because the cost of living in Shenzhen is so much cheaper." "Look, it's going to happen anyhow, it's a question how long it takes. And I think the faster it happens, the better off it'll be for Hong Kong. We need to look at the Pearl River Delta as our market -- not HK in the Pearl River Delta -- we need to look at it as one integral, one integrated, resource. We need to let the free market work itself out here. Real estate prices go where they have to go, even if it means going down. We've got to get the competitive spirit back again." On industrial policy, he argued: "We need to look at the industry; we need somehow to attract high-end technology industry here. I don't know exactly because I'm not in that business particularly, and I'm not in the real estate business either. But I understand there are hundreds and thousands of square feet of empty factory space in Hong Kong. How do we utilise this? This not only would utilise the resources that we have but would also employ all these people, the eight per cent we've been talking about." Mr. Elman, whose group has won international awards for its performance as an employer, and for its work in information technology, said local entertripses had to constantly strive to improve themselves: "We ran into a 1997 crisis, okay. It didn't affect Hong Kong: it effected everybody in Asia, from Korean, to Japan, to Indonesia, to Thailand -- you name it. It was major, and it was very very severe and very very very deep. But I think we've had enough time since then. I mean we in the company, the Noble Group, we took this as an opportunity to reinvent ourselves. You know, we sat back and said: "Look, the world is falling apart around us. How do we protect ourselves? How do we go forward?" "We took salary cuts in 1998. We have never reinstated those salary cuts. It doesn't mean that people aren't making more money because we have the ability to reward them substantially, or by bonuses, but we took pro-active measures in 1997 to take this company forward. We looked outside of our own relatively small horizon at that time; we looked worldwide; we looked into other businesses that are synonymous with the business we are in. But we took the initiative and we didn't sit back and say: "Well, it's going to get better." It won't get better unless you do something about it. It's as simple as that." Mr. Elman described the economic boom years before 1997 as "exceptional": I'm totally convinced the last ten or twenty years have been quite exceptional. I think there was more wealth created in the shortest period of time in the history of the world, and I think what we have today is a very normal period. And I think -- it's my personal opinion -- that the sooner people recognized that, the better off we'll all be. I mean, I think it's back to reality, back to basics. I think that we need to remember the ethics a few years ago, which is hard work and focus and vision, and move forward. But in the next few years, I just don't see a turn around unless we do something about it. You know, I think there's an expression that says: "God helps them that help themselves." "I think we've all become too fat. We've enjoyed the good life too long, and perhaps we're all little bit too wealthly. I don't think being wealthy is bad, but you sort of lose your edge." But he argued that employment was a serious issue for the whole of society: "The unemployment is affecting the bottom end, the lower end of the economy much more than the top end. If the bulk of the population is not enjoying a good life, the rest of us won't. And if we have eight per cent unemployment, that's not very healthy for a small place like Hong Kong. It's going to create all sorts of other problems that I don't think any of us need." He identified highs cost as a major factor holding Hong Kong back: "We are very expensive, okay. All the other countries around Asia, with the possible exception of China, have had a 30% devaluation. We haven't. So we're still at the similar numbers where we were 7 years ago. Yes its true rents have gone down substantially, but still not sufficient to make this a highly competitive place." But Mr. Elman believed Hong Kong still had much to offer mainland China, and the rest of the world: "What is Hong Kong good at? It's good at the software industry, of commerce okay. This is what we have to offer to China. They are the hardware so to speak, we are the software. We have a lot of expertise here." He added: "We set out to build a world class company based in Hong Kong, and we are proud of it. And it can be done, and we are not the only companies that have done it -- there are many other companies. And that's what I think I'm trying to say about Hong Kong: that's what we need to do." "View from the Top" will be aired every Friday evening at 6:55pm on ATV World Channel. If you miss the programme that evening, you could always revisit the programme on our website at www.rthk.org.hk after 8:30pm. Highlights of the programme to be broadcast the day after (Sat) at RTHK Radio 3 "Hong Kong Today" at 7:00am-8:00am

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