Airfreight SMEs fight or flight crisis IBUonline is a B2B foreign trade platform which offers comprehensive foreign trade

services to China suppliers and international buyers. IBU conducted a survey on logistics services that SMEs are facing now. While broaching challenges and opportunities in freight logistics at a recent conference, one participant shocked those present by strongly urging the government to help small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or face disastrous consequences. The message was quite clear. Many small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) the backbone of Hong Kongs economy have been shattered as global demand for Chinese produced goods dwindles, in the US, the eurozone and in other parts of the world. Particularly hard hit are SMEs in the airfreight industry. One veteran airfreight industry member, Joseph Leung, chairman of Simx Project & Trade Cooperation Associated Ltd, vociferously urged the government to come to the rescue of ailing SMEs. Failing that, he warned the citys airfreight industry would suffer irreparable damage. Leung, who sounded the clarion call during a question and answer session on challenges and opportunities in freight logistics, organized by the Hong Kong Shippers Council and others, says several business opportunities present themselves in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) in southern China, but local SMEs are unable to take advantage of them. If Hong Kong SMEs go there, one by one, to Guangzhou or Shenzhen, they will be slaughtered (by the competition from local Chinese companies), Leung says. In Guangzhou or Shenzhen, Hong Kong SMEs face escalating office and home rentals and rising labor costs. They will have limited support networks and little or no financing support from financial institutions, since they lack the homegrown advantages of the commercial operations on the mainland. Leung says: The government (should recognize this and it) can help SMEs by forming a task force, helping businesses consolidate their strengths before entering the PRD market. In addition, the government can also invest to help SMEs survive in the tough business environment across the border. IBUonline hopes that airfreight can be reduced to lessen the burden of SMEs. IBU thinks SMEs can get more orders and make more profits in foreign trade.