Our history. In early 90s, a group of safety professional saw a need to create an entity within the HKIE to promote safety for the HKIE members and the community. As a result, the Safety Specialist Group (SSG) was established in 1995 to foster a closer link with all disciplines and to serve all members of the HKIE on safety and health issues. SSG invited all HKIE members to join without an additional subscription fee.

In the past year, we have been fortunate to be led by the following eminent safety professionals as our Chairmen:

	Ir Dr Alex Cheung	(1995-1997)
	Ir TS Li	(1997-1998)
	Ir Simon Kum	(1998-1999)
	Ir Dr Francis Wong	(1999-2000)
	Ir Dr SW Poon	(2000-2001)
	Ir George Cheng	(2001-2002)
	Ir Robert Tam	(2002-2003)
	Ir Nelson Yu	(2003-2004)
	Ir Roger Ng	(2004-2005)
	Ir Dr Vincent Simon Ho	(2005-2006)
	Ir Dr WONG King	(2006-2008)

In June 2004, SSG has been re-titled as the Safety Specialist Committee (SSC).

"We engineers shall actively involve & contribute in building a safe society."

Our mission. SSC continue to be responsible to the Learned Society Board for enchanting the HKIE's learned society activities in safety & health by:

	promoting safety and health information & knowledge transfer;
	promoting safety & health education & training;
	promoting safety & health in engineering design practices; and
	offering advisory services through Community Service Committee on safety and health matter.

To fulfill our mission, we stride to maintain a diversified constituency. We want to include members from different HKIE disciplines and divisions, and from different industries with different engineering backgrounds, to share experience and exchange our views on safety-related issues. I envision SSC to be the catalyst to promote safety and be the focal point of all safety-related discussion and forum both within the HKIE and other professional organisations in Hong Kong. Our knowledge in safety engineering and safety management can provide a significant impact to our societies.

"The absence of accident does not necessarily indicates the presence of safety."

In the coming years, our emphasis would be paid on strengthening the safety knowledge of our fellow engineers by introducing effective tools, techniques and standards so as to boost safety awareness, uplift management skills and promote safety engineering profession both in Hong Kong and on the Mainland.

We are pleased to announce you that our membership has grown to around 3,270. We would continue to drive our membership by organising various types of activities. Furthermore, we would jointly organise activities with other HKIE divisions and outside professional bodies to fortify our cohesion with other professionals. In order to effectively implement our plan, the following teams were established to support SSC:

Partnership with other Parties

Similar to previous years, we endeavour to maintain and strengthen the partnership with other professional institutions and association so as to arouse and uplift the safety awareness within the engineering profession. With such partnering strategy, the following observers and guests would be invited to attend our Committee meetings:

	Labour Department (LD) HKSAR Government
	Construction Industry Training Authority (CITA)
	HK Occupational Safety and Health Council (OSHC)
	Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH)(HK Branch)
	Hong Kong Occupational Safety and Health Association (HKOSHA)
	Society of Registered Safety Officers (SRSO)

Events and Activities

In the coming year, I would like to serve the committee and achieve our planned objectives and mission through the following key activities and issues:

	technical visit to State Administration of Work Safety (中華人民共和國國家安全生產監督管理總局) and Ministry of Construction (中華人民共和國建設部).
	to arrange two major events in late 2007 and March 2008 with a grand dinner together with a review proceedings to celebrate our 13rd Anniversary, and an open forum or seminar for around 150 attendees in Hong Kong or the Mainland China;
	to re-appoint the Safety Discipline Task Force chaired by Ir Dr Vincent Ho, our Immediate Past Chairman, to evaluate the possibility of setting up a Safety Discipline under the HKIE (i.e. This is to response to our IPP Ir Dr Greg Wong's message to SSC during his visit to SSC monthly meeting in Session 2005/2006.);
	to promote safety profession and engineering to the youngsters and members of the public by organising various events such as competitions, visits, seminars, etc. (i.e. the major event is the student competition for final years projects or design projects that would be commenced in September, 2007);
	to encourage joint efforts among related organizations to promote safety profession and engineering; and
	to motivate and encourage SSC members to proactively participate in all activities organised by SSC or other safety related organisations.

"Everyone has a role to play in safety."

Work Relationship with HKIE-HQ

With over 50 years of endeavour by Hong Kong engineers, the development of HKIE has come to maturity with various divisions and committees running independently. With an aim to build a family-feel environment, SSC would organise gatherings for different divisions and committees to facilitate sharing of views and ideas. In addition, we would proactively participate in social gatherings organised by HKIE-HQ. Should there are any issues related to engineering safety, spokesperson from SSC would try the best to help and work with outside parties.

Come to our activities. Our dedicated Committee members will arrange many activities this year to meet our mission. I sincerely invite you to participate in our activities.

I would also like to appeal to those who are interested to share his/her experience in safety by giving a technical talk or hosting a site visit to give us a call or email us at any time. We appreciate very much for your contribution to the sustainable development of engineering safety in the society.

Lastly, but not the least, we would like to solicit your valuable ideas and suggestions. Please do notify us should you have any comments or opinions on engineering safety profession.

Ir Dr WONG King (黃敬博士、工程師)
Chairman, Safety Specialist Committee
Session 2007/2008