Sunday 25"' May 2008
10.00am-2 .00pm
Site visit to Hong Kong Police Training
centre
Ocean Peak, Hong Kong.
Meeting with Michael Neway, Superintendent
of Narcotics Division
Meeting with Alan Fan, Superintendent of Internal
Affairs and also his wife Kathleen who
works
in the rural police division .
Michael Neway has done much of his specialised training in Australia, in
both Sydney and Melbourne .
The Department of Hong Kong Police is based on the British Police force but they do a lot of joint
work with the Narcotics branch of the Australian Federal Police . In recent decades Hong Kong has its
opium problem under control and there are no longer opium dens on the streets. Heroin is a problem
but far less than it was 10 years ago . Superintendent Neway admits that currently party drugs are the
new problem of Hong Kong but he does not believe that is as serious a problem as in Australia. Young
people have more disposable income than their parents but accommodation is at a premium and so
expensive compared to income and Michael believes that they have less money to spend on drugs .
Parties in Hong Kong tend to be in more public places, as private homes are too small -
these are well
policed. There are 32,000 police in Hong Kong for a population of 7 million. 20% of the police force
are women.
Our site visit included the state of the art Simulation Centre which includes inside a fully replicated
MTR
(underground train station) and shopping centre . Much of the country's crime is conducted in
these two venues and simulated crimes are an integral part of the police training . Training for Police
Officers is 28 weeks full time live in 5 days a week . Upgrading to leadership positions is on top of this
basic training after on-the-job training of several years.
6.00-9.30pm
Meeting with Dr. Chris Suck
Chris completed his PhD at the University of South Australia. He is a real entrepreneur and an
exceptionally successful businessman with several enterprises under his quite radical kind
of
leadership . It is obvious that he is way ahead of most other Chinese in his approach to business
management . Chris owns a large factory in Guang Dong province in China specialising in packaging
products made of recycled paper and cardboard as well as plastic and foam shaping. This factory has
5,000 employees and Chris manages to visit at least once a fortnight.
His main business is his 23 Karaoke bars throughout Hong Kong, employing 1,500 employees . He also
owns several sushi restaurants. We were fortunate to visit one of his largest Karaoke premises which
had 250 rooms. The smallest holding about 12 people, the largest holding 150 people . Each is done out
in a different theme including: dinosaurs, fairies, Greek, etc . this enterprise is very much a family
venue and used for birthday parties for all ages, family gatherings and corporate events . Again the fact
that many family homes are very small means that this venue is well used for family occasions . Each
room is fitted out with state of the art video and acoustic equipment. There is no charge for the room
but there is a charge of $80HK (about $12AU) for each person for a buffet meal . Soft drinks and
alcohol for over 18's is charged separately . Chris was very interested to know whether we thought this
concept would work in Australia particularly Adelaide . We witnessed very young singers and a singer
in their eighties, however we were not sure that Australian inhibition would encourage participation at
the same level . The Chinese love their Karaoke, it has become one of the top 10 pastimes in the last