This 12th edition incorporates all the salient features such as the 6th Hong Kong Eyewear Design Competition, the 2nd Hong Kong Optometric Conference and the ever popular Eyewear Trend Seminar. To make your participation even more rewarding we have created Visionaries of Style - Enjoy Your Vision in Life, a trend area for top brands and designer styles. The former Shop Fittings product category has been expanded and enhanced this year to become the Retail & Shop Design, Equipment & Technology Section.

These features, side by side with the vast range of products from over 520 exhibitors from 19 countries and regions, promise to give you a very interesting and rewarding experience.

As you may know, Hong Kong is second only to Italy as an exporter of spectacle frames. In fact, the Hong Kong optical industry as a whole has been forging ahead this year. Our US$695 million worth of exports of spectacles, lenses and frames from January to August 2004 represents an 18% increase over the same period in 2003. It has been very gratifying to see that most of our markets have performed very well indeed. Our top three markets - the USA, Italy and the Chinese mainland - rose by 10%, 58% and 45% respectively.

We have every reason to be optimistic. Hong Kong continues to enjoy a worldwide reputation for supplying high quality optical goods at a reasonable price. The international trend to outsourcing has brought more business to our doors and we are maintaining our leading edge through continuing investment in design, product innovation and the adoption of advanced technologies.

As the OEM (original equipment manufacturing) and ODM (original design manufacturing) supplier of choice to many leading international brands, Hong Kong manufacturers have gained an impressive store of experience. Many companies have entered into licensing agreements now while others are making an appearance on the world stage with their own brands.

Another area in which Hong Kong manufacturers have a valuable repository of knowlege and experience is in the Chinese mainland market. With the number of spectacle-wearers there estimated to be around 300 million, there are many more opportunities still to be explored in the Chinese mainland.