Message from the Chairman of HKRMA
香港零售管理協會主席之話
Mr. Thomson Cheng
鄭偉雄先生
Entering the second quarter of 2017, Hong Kong’s retail industry registered a
positive growth for the first time in 24 months. The value of retail sales in March
2017 reached $35.7 billion, rising 3.1% from a year earlier. For the first quarter of
2017, the total retail sales value slid 1.3% over the same period.
While the sales in March are encouraging, the growth was largely due to some
short-term factors. Mainland tourist arrivals have shown signs of recovery after
months of decline, and the tension between China and South Korea has also lured
more mainland tourists to Hong Kong recently. In March 2017, Mainland visitor
arrivals surged 10.4% from a year earlier, while there was a near 9% increase in
overall visitor arrivals.
Despite continued recovery of visitor arrivals, the Hong Kong Tourism Board
predicts the per capita spending for overnight visitors will plunge to HK$6,256
this year, which is the lowest level since 2010. In fact, Hong Kong retailers have
been adjusting their business strategies to cater for the needs of Mainland tourists
coming from second or lower-tier Chinese cities, for example, more mid-range
brands and products are newly-introduced to the market.
With the slow but gradual improvement in the retail performance, the industry
may be a step closer to bottoming out. However, we still have to see if the
recovery could be sustained. On the brighter side, we note from the monthly
survey conducted with our members that most of them are showing greater
confidence and are less reliant on discounts to boost sales, and they also expect
better sales in the months ahead.
The current Government is tr ying to pass its proposal on the progressive
abolishment of the “offsetting” of severance payments (SP) or long service
payments (LSP) with MPF contributions. As the views of business sector and major
stakeholders are still very much divided, we reiterate that the Government must
act cautiously and adopt a balanced approach on this matter, especially when
Hong Kong is still facing economic uncertainties in the external environment and
has been experiencing the biggest retail downturn since the Asian financial crisis
in 1997.
踏入
2017
年第二季，香港的零售業錄得兩
年以來首次增長，
2017
年
3
月的零售銷貨值
達
357
億港元，按年上升
3.1%
，而今年首季
的零售總銷貨值則比去年同期下跌
1.3%
。
3
月的零售銷售數字令人鼓舞，但增長主要
來自多個短期因素。內地訪港旅客人數連月
下跌後開始回升，而最近中國與南韓之間的
緊張局勢，亦促使更多內地旅客訪港。
2017
年
3
月的內地訪港旅客人數按年上升
10.4%
，
而整體訪港旅客人數則上升近
9%
。
儘管訪港旅客數字持續回升，但香港旅遊
發展局預期今年的過夜旅客人均消費將下
跌至
6,256
港元，為
2010
年以來最低。事實
上，香港的零售商正調整經營策略，例如
引入更多中價的新品牌及產品，以迎合來
自中國二線或以下城市的旅客。
在零售表現逐漸改善之際，零售業有望即
將走出谷底。雖然升勢能否持續仍是未知
之數，但每月進行的調查顯示大部分會員
都對未來更有信心，減少依賴提供折扣增
加銷售，他們亦預期未來數月的銷售將會
改善。
與此同時，現屆政府提出逐步取消以強積
金供款對沖遣散費或長期服務金的方案。
由於商界及主要持份者的意見仍然出現重
大分歧，協會促請政府審慎行事，並採納
平衡各方利益的方案，尤其香港仍然面對
充滿變數的外圍經濟環境，而零售業亦正
經歷
1997
年亞洲金融危機以來最嚴重的衰
退時期。
3
