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Accountants in Hong Kong are certainly not trained to
tackle SARS head on like professional doctors despite our
many varied skills. However, we are never slow in playing
our part in the community. Many accountants have acted
swiftly ad ingeniously.
As your LegCo
representative, I was amongst the first lawmakers to
publicly pay tribute to the bravery of our
frontline medical workers. In a letter to Hong Kong
entitled ¡¥A Wake up Call¡¦ broadcast on RTHK radio 3 on the
6 April 2003, I was the first public figure to draw a
parallel between Sars the 911 tragedy and the war in Iraq.
I appealed to the Government to step up its efforts to
keep both our citizens and the international community
accurately informed. I urged our officials to immediately
seek expert help from the international community and to
treat the then budding epidemic as a matter of great
importance for the whole global community. This was
against the background that our government officials were
still saying that all was under control. The full text is
on my website
www.ericli.org.
Getting the message out
On 12 April, 2003, the Saturday of the following week,
I spoke again on another RTHK radio program and this time,
urged the Government to urgently assess the economic
consequences of Sars on Hong Kong. I predicted then, that
Sars could lead to a sustained period of disruption to
consumption, travel and trade. If Hong Kong failed to
contain the disease quickly with drastic measures, then
the problem could spread and become a serious problem not
only for Hong Kong but also the world or, at least, the
Asia Pacific region. I appealed to the public to help Hong
Kong and themselves by offering generous trade discounts
to stimulate consumption after Sars is controlled. I also
told the Government to change its mindset of a tight
budget and to act boldly in helping to avoid any permanent
structural damages inflicted on parts of our economy and
thus adding to our swelling unemployment.
Later in the month, I wrote again for the HKSA on the
article ¡¥Sars-a race for leadership¡¦ that appeared in this
column last month. The article gave a comprehensive
account of what I think Hong Kong had done well and what
opportunities were missed. In conclusion, I suggested that
the race for leadership to manage Sars is not just about
Mr. Tung and his handful of top officials but about Hong
Kong staying in the race to be a leading city of Asia.
Doing our part
On a more personal note, I also served with other
accountants as Honorary Auditors for some of the major
Sars charity funds. Many accountants took the initiatives
to write to me and offer to help out by joining forces. I am
happy to give an account of what I know that they have
done.
Our President, Mr. David Sun, took it to heart and
wrote twice in his President¡¦s Message on Sars. The HKSA,
together with ACCA and CPAA, took a lead in launching the
Accountants Care Campaign and directed charity funds
raised to where they would be most needed. Our Accountants
Ambassadors are already setting their sights on helping
the re-launching of Hong Kong by taking part in building
management to keep Hong Kong clean in free advisory
services teams. Some wanted to help the orphaned children
of Sars victims by providing tutorials and personal care.
The accountants from Australia under the auspicious of
the CPAA were active on many fronts. They launched a
regular electronic bulletin in mid-April to keep members
and their international friends informed of the latest
Sars updates and positive news for the business and Hong
Kong community despite the outbreak. Special seminars were
held on ¡¥Change Management¡¦ and the proceeds donated to
the Accountants Care Campaign. A survey was conducted on
the impact of Sars, which unveiled a surprisingly bullish
outlook for Hong Kong. Financial experts surveyed had
indicated confidence in and appreciation for our medical
profession in its control of Sars, and that the epidemic
had not tarnished their favorable impression of Hong Kong
as a place to live and do business. The exercise ended on
a positive note by appealing to the community for unity
and giving many thoughtful proposals to help revitalizing
the economy.
International involvement
In a similar vein, our accountants from Canada under
the auspicious of CGA also appealed for thoughts to be
directed to re-engineer our economy and to rebuild our
community spirit. They consider that the fight against
Sars is not only a health or hygiene issue, it is also a
social and economic issue. They made use of their
international network to communicate accurate and positive
information to update their members overseas and to offer
them assistance required to deal with the disruptions
caused. They have partnered with the Hong Kong
Productivity Council to help Hong Kong¡¦s SMEs to
understand the importance of timely financial statements
as a crisis management tool.
Accountants from the IT sector under the IT Accountants
Association launched another ¡¥Re-born From Sars¡¦ programme
to assist SMEs to overcome the Sars ordeal. They were
joined by the CGA-Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Chamber of SME
and many IT and CPA firms in offering free business
consultancy services to SMEs that had become economic
victim to the blow dealt by Sars. They have aptly coined
the programme the Phoenix campaign, symbolising the spirit
and the undaunted hope to be able to rise again from a
very low point.
Stay strong
I am sure that these are only some of the gallant
efforts of accountants in trying to help out during the
worst of times in Hong Kong. But these are the projects
that have been brought to my attention and of course it is
no less important for the others that I am ignorant of. I
salute these community minded accountants for a job well
done and wish to commend each and every one of them who
has taken part. I am indeed pleased that accountants can
be so positive in maintaining strong spirits, so skilled
in communication and so resourceful in deploying our
international network to serve Hong Kong. I hope that you
are also like them, bearing no grudge to ill-fortune, but
staying proud, confident and ready to re-launch, rebuild
and revitalize a ¡¥post-Sars¡¦ Hong Kong.
Dr Eric Li is the LegCo
Accountancy Functional Constituency Representative.
For more information, refer to his website at
http://www.ericli.org
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