Hong Kong Consumer Council wants to go digital with green focus

Online data from product tests and lessons for schools among some of the measures planned

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Consumer Council chief Gilly Wong says Hongkongers only practise sustainable consumption when there are instant benefits. Photo: David Wong

Published: 11:30pm, 18 Jun 2017Updated: 4:56pm, 19 Jun 2017

The Consumer Council’s chief executive has expressed her vision to turn the organisation digital by making use of technology to provide better information and protection to consumers, while doing more to educate the public about sustainable consumption.

“What we want to achieve is that when consumers go shopping, they will take out their smartphones and search for test results conducted by the council on that particular product they may want to get,” Gilly Wong Fung-han said.

“We already have the information – the question is how we digitise it.” Wong said she wanted to use more social media and also modernise the council’s website.

“At present, our Choice magazine on the internet is in PDF format only. You cannot click though hyperlinks to go to the stories. We want to make it interactive as a shopping guide.”

The council, under the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, currently has an annual budget of about HK$100 million and about 155 staff, a number that Wong said would need to expand in order to achieve the digitalisation target.

In addition to keeping track of existing consumption sectors, Wong said an upcoming focus is on supporting sustainable consumption.