Francis Ip, executive director and deputy CEO of Yip's Chemical. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)

For an industrial company to enhance its market position and succeed, innovation is the most important factor to realize its goals and visions, Hong Kong’s leading industrialists and entrepreneurs told China Daily in a recent interview.

The industrial sector has always played a crucial role in the whole economic chain, connecting raw materials and products delivered to consumers

“Innovation is vital for enterprises’ survival, and also a key leading a company to success,” Francis Ip, executive director and deputy CEO of Yip’s Chemical, told China Daily, adding that it is also the key strategy that his company has taken in recent decades.

The industrial sector has always played a crucial role in the whole economic chain, connecting raw materials and products delivered to consumers.

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Hong Kong’s government in recent years has recognized the importance of innovation in industrialization, as it links and facilitates other prominent industries’ development. When the city’s chief executive, John Lee Ka-chiu, was running for the office earlier this year, he vowed in his election manifesto to facilitate the process of Hong Kong’s reindustrialization, aiming to establish a more-diversified economy, a more-appropriate distribution of resources, and more-sustainable development for the city.

Yip’s Chemical is a leading Chinese manufacturer and chemical product producer with a history of more than 50 years. Its core businesses, which include acetate solvents, coatings and inks, place the company in the top tier among its counterparts in China.

Looking back through the history of Yip’s Chemical, Ip said the company has always worked in every possible way to innovate its products to fit the changing needs of consumers.

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“For example, as consumers constantly pursue a more comfortable home life, we have continued to innovate new paints with special effects for homes. At the same time, we have introduced more environmentally friendly products, including anti-microbial paints, and paints with no volatile organic compounds,” he said.

“In addition to product development, we innovate in sales channels as well. We observed that younger consumers are now looking for more inspiration for home renovation. As a result, we changed our branded stores to include more holistic displays of paint effects, so consumers can have a better experience when shopping at our stores.

“The motivation behind the innovation is simply the fact that a business has to continue to move forward to survive,” Ip said. “The market is changing more and more quickly, and there is an urgent need for a business to innovate and change constantly.

“Breakthroughs that lead to significant demands for new products in our field may be a relatively slow process, so it is important to be persistent and consistent in investing resources in these developments,” he said.

With a relatively long-term view, small and incremental improvements will help sustain a business’s long-term health, he added.

Arthur Lee, founder and chairman of Kolinker Group, a leading global manufacturer in the quartz crystal industry. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)

Arthur Lee, founder and chairman of Kolinker Group, a leading global manufacturer in the quartz crystal industry, said, “We are glad to see the Hong Kong government in the past years making progress in innovation and reindustrialization. However, there is still something that needs to be improved.”

Based in Hong Kong, Kolinker Group has in recent years committed to conducting research and development work in the city, including the GNSS Disciplined Oscillator series and ultrastable high-frequency oscillators that cater to 5G applications. The latter won Hong Kong Awards for Industries in 2019.

As the motto of the company is to act as a core of various up-to-date high technologies and to link these technologies to specific fields of industry, Kolinker has diversified into electronic components and equipment, which gained wide recognition and industrial brand awards for its achievements.

Arthur Lee, who is also the vice-president of Hong Kong Young Industrialists Council Foundation, said Kolinker takes the combined advantages of Hong Kong and the mainland to develop electronic components. “They play different roles in our whole production,” he said. “In Hong Kong, we conduct most research work, but we locate the production line on the mainland, where it can achieve a high volume of automatic production.”

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Echoing Ip’s views, Lee, an experienced industry player, believed innovation and reindustrialization are crucial for Hong Kong’s industrial enterprises such as Kolinker. It is continuous innovation in technology and production as well as robust confidence in research that keep their enterprises competitive in the globe, he said.

“For enterprises, especially private enterprises, if we don’t have confidence in our technology or believe we can be number one in the world, we will not start the project. So, every project, for me, owns its potential to rank first globally.”

However, he also said that a lack of technology talents is a bottleneck that local manufacturing companies like Kolinker have faced in recent years.

“Hong Kong’s reindustrialization must ‘go out’ because to build a complete industry, it requires not only advanced technology and excellent products, but also elements such as market, labor, lands, and supply chain, so as to maximize the scale effect of industrial production,” he said.

“Talent is the most important element in Hong Kong’s developing innovation and technology industry,” Lee said. “There is a necessity to attract and retain research talents and high-end technical personnel in the traditional industrialization sector to inject the impetus for the industry and related enterprises, especially some small and medium-sized enterprises.

“Usually, government-funded research and development institutions, large technology enterprises or government-sponsored innovation and technology enterprises have strong financial strength, but a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises are still finding it difficult to attract or even retain talents with good salaries,” he said.

Lee calls for more preferable incentives and talent policies to be rolled out to attract talents and meet the demands of innovation in various industries in Hong Kong, especially the industrial sector. He also suggested more occupational training sessions could be offered to cultivate experienced personnel.

Ip of Yip’s Chemical said that “while specific innovations may vary significantly from sector to sector, HKYIC is an invaluable platform for industrialists like me to share information and experience. All the members of HKYIC are top and experienced entrepreneurs or industrialists who are facing similar challenges. By connecting through various events, such as visits to key policymakers in government and workshops on the new trends in robotics and artificial technology in industries, we can engage in continuous learning and improve.”