Hong Kong Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) serves as an indicator of spending intentions over a particular period by examining consumer perceptions about current and anticipated social and economic conditions.

Dr. Geoffrey Tso, Associate Head, Associate Professor, and the Director of the Statistical Consulting Unit from the Department of Management Sciences led a joint research project. The research finds that the Hong Kong Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) of the cross-strait region, Hong Kong and Macau for the first quarter of 2020 on April 2020, announced that the overall Hong Kong CCI was 55.3, down 19.5% year on year (YoY) and down 31.7% quarter on quarter (QoQ).

The project team surveys were conducted by telephone interview from the 9th of March 2020 to the 31st of March 2020. By adopting a random sampling procedure, 1,003 interviews were conducted with residents aged 18 or above in Hong Kong to collect the necessary information for the HKCCI index which covers six economic aspects, details consumer sentiment towards economic development, employment, commodity prices, the standard of living, property purchases, and stock investment.

The CCI result of this quarter is the second-lowest point since it was announced in the third quarter of 2008, which is almost to the lowest record of 52.8 measured in the third quarter of 2019. All the sub-indices are measured at 65 or lower, shows that Hong Kong consumers lack confidence in these aspects.

There were significant decreases in customers' confidence levels in four main aspects: Stock Investments, Commodity Prices, Standard of Living, and Employment. Nevertheless, Consumer confidence has also declined in the other two aspects: Economic Development and Property Purchases.

The overall result drops significantly compared with the result of the last quarter due to the decrease in consumer confidence in all aspects. The sub-indices for Stock Investments, Commodity Prices, Standard of living, and Employment have all dropped by more than 20%. The result of this quarter is the second-lowest point since this index was introduced in the third quarter of 2008, which approaching the lowest record of 52.8 measured in the third quarter of 2019. This indicates that Hong Kong consumers’ confidence level is still very low. The situation is possibly caused by the continuous influences by the outbreak of the epidemic in the past months.

For the details, please refer to the website: https://www.cityu.edu.hk/media/press-release/2020/04/08/hong-kong-consumer-confidence-has-significantly-decreased-and-become-second-lowest-point-3rd-quarter-2008

Table 1. Results of the CCI index (Overall*)

*The overall index is a weighted index that combines the present and expected CCI.

Table 2. Results of the CCI (Present and Expected#)                                                            

# Expected results in the next three months

Management Science Alumni Association’s event - “Introduction to Python in Business Usage and Lunch Sharing” was successfully held on 19th January 2020. With around 110 registered alumni participated in this 3-hour learning session, the topic was honorably presented by Dr. Gavin Feng. In this session, Dr. Feng introduced how to use the simple "Python" program language to apply on business usages. Furthermore, around 50 alumni took part in the lunch and learn session afterwards.

In the lunch sharing session, Management Science Alumni Association invited experienced alumni speakers shared their valuable experiences with the audience. We had discussed the use of data analytics in banking, government open data source, consulting trends by using data and China market on data use cases.

Ricky Lo, from Citibank, shared about the trends in banking and reminded that alumni would better to first have domain knowledge. And then practice more in business analytical skill and to become a data scientist step by step. In the last part, he shared how to make use of the “Python” tools to present the useful utilized of data analytical in business.

Sharon and Daniel, from PwC and EY, shared the data utilized in the consultant’s firm. There are more data related projects around AML, fraud case detection by data analysts.

Dr. ZHOU Zhixin, from US Baidu, shared his view on China uses a lot of data to personalize the web experience in search engine.

Dr. Agnes Law, shared with us on the usage of open data which was sourced from HK Government and Statistics Department.

There was another event held on the same day which was about students who would like to focus on management trainee interviews and job sharing. Total of 20 alumni registered to participate in this event. The alumni shared the requirement of the Management Trainee and their management journeys in banking and different enterprises.

These comprehensive topics from the latest industry development cultivated the attendees with their career achievement and updated career information of the market. The event also successfully connected excellent communications and networking opportunity for our students and alumni. Audiences were greatly benefitted from this event on their invaluable working experiences especially in these various perspectives.

Thank you for the graduates shared their career experiences with the current students and fresh graduates. We would greatly appreciate the Management Science Alumni Association to organize this event and it was completed with joy and fruitful learning and sharing. We are looking forward to the coming MSAA’s events.

Jan 2020

Congratulations!

Our BOM student, Kelvin Cheung, won the championship of the HSBC Life Insurance Competition on 7 January 2020 with his joining team of other universities fellows.

The competition provided students with comprehensive knowledge about life insurance and related technologies in the contemporary market.

“Through a series of well-structured workshops and training, the competition provided students with comprehensive erudition about life insurance and related technologies in contemporary market.” Kelvin said.

"The competition was a valuable opportunity to learn about proposal composition, idea-pitching and division of labour. Working in a rather diversified team, the biggest challenge was cooperating with students with different backgrounds and fields of study. Effective communication and a clear manifestation of your own stance are always the keys to overcome the challenge," Kelvin said additionally.

Professor Houmin Yan, Acting Dean of the College, said in the competition, “The competition offers students an interdisciplinary learning opportunity and encourages them to unleash their creativity for original discoveries. 10 years ago, smartphone was invented, and it was a groundbreaking technology that has affected our daily lives since then. In this generation, we have Big Data which allows companies to offer more tailored products and services. Then what’s next? What would be the biggest innovation in the next 10 years? We are counting on you (students) to make it happen.”

Another team formed by five CityU students from other departments also awarded the second runner-up of the Innovation award in the competition.

The awards not only included cash prizes but also 10 internship opportunities offered by HSBC Life to the winners. Nevertheless, HSBC would be able to consider utilizing the outstanding innovative ideas from students too! We are looking forward to our students awarded in the coming competition.

Details: https://www.cb.cityu.edu.hk/news-events/news/2020/02/CB-hosts-HSBC-Life-Insurance-Innovation-Competition

To kick off a new year, Business Analysis Program organized a lunch gathering for students on 7 January 2020, attracting over 30 BANL students joining the event even though it was hosted during a preparation week. Everyone enjoyed the food and the students took the chance to interact with the major leaders, who gave valuable advices on different aspects such as students' academic development, gaining exposure through exchange program and future career planning. The event symbolized a good start of a year and the program leaders hope that all students have a fruitful year ahead.

The Department of Management Sciences is pleased to announce that Dr. Jianfu Wang joined us in January 2020. Dr Wang is an Associate Professor of Management Sciences at the College of Business, City University of Hong Kong. He received his B.Sc. in Mathematics from Southeast University, his M.Sc. in Mathematics from Leiden University, and his Ph.D. in Operations Management from Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. His research interests include queueing theory and its application in service operations, queueing economics, healthcare operations, and revenue management.