Coronavirus pandemic: Major Hong Kong firms ready to embrace innovation, technology in aftermath to stay competitive

Major Hong Kong companies have embraced innovation to sharpen their competitiveness during the coronavirus pandemic, the China Conference heard on Thursday. And the trend is set to continue in its aftermath.

“Our focus [going forward] is to have the whole company embrace innovation,” Damien Wu, Chinachem’s director of business transformation and innovation, told the conference, which is an annual event organised by the South China Morning Post. “During the pandemic, the government introduced social distancing [measures] that kind of turned our business upside down,” Wu said.

The Covid-19 pandemic has sped up adoption of digital technology, as lockdowns and social-distancing restrictions have led to changes in work practices, pushing many corporations to accelerate their pace of innovation.

Chinachem was probably the very first company to offer long-stay packages and offer quarantine services at its hotels, Wu said. “To protect our staff and our guests, we are also one of the first to introduce robots delivering meals in hotels,” he added.

Wu said innovation helped the company face most challenges over the past one-and-a-half years, at a time when tourist arrivals plunged by about 99 per cent and most Hong Kong residents were staying home to help contain the coronavirus outbreak.