The Consumer Council has published a record high of 23 joint international tests, in collaboration with the International Consumer Research and Testing (ICRT), during this year.
This represents more than 50% of the total number of comparative product tests (42) published in its monthly magazine CHOICE for the period.
Notably among these joint tests were such electronic products as GSM mobile handsets and digital cameras.
The Consumer Council is a long-standing member of the ICRT which enables the Council to benefit enormously through cost sharing of these joint projects as well as the provision of expertise and testing facilities.
ICRT, for instance, spent annually to the tune of HK$3 million and HK$2.5 million for GSM handsets and digital cameras respectively.
Further, in the case of the Euro-NCAP car crash joint project, the purchase and testing of a single car model alone would cost around HK$2.5 million.
Any one of these projects would in fact have exceeded the Council's annual total testing budget.
In collaboration with ICRT, the Council is able to continue to evaluate the wide range of products on the market despite the financial constraints it is facing. Therefore, subscription to the Council's CHOICE magazine is truly of great value for money to the consumers.
Some of these joint tests would not have been possible to be conducted in Hong Kong - either because of the lack of testing facilities (in the case of measuring the radiation from mobile phones), expertise or the prohibitive costs.
Indeed, proposals for some ICRT tests were initiated by the Consumer Council such as the concern over mobile phone "explosion", which has since become a joint project for international collaboration.
ICRT is expanding now quickly in the Asian region with new members from South Korea, Thailand and Singapore.
Therefore for the first time ICRT is organising a workshop and a meeting in the area with the Hong Kong Consumer Council as the co-organiser.
The conference will boost the collaboration between consumer organisations in the area, resulting in more information for the consumers. But also the consumers in other parts of the world will benefit from this as ICRT will be able to test the products as soon as they come on the market in Asia (specifically for mobile phones and some electronic products, often months before they arrive at the European or American market).
Issued by
Consumer Council
November 30 2004