Two students studying business at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) have come up trumps against hundreds of local business students by grabbing a major prize at the Business Administration Paper 2006 competition.

Thomas Tam Shing-tak from CityU's Department of Economics and Finance and Steve Tsai Chi-wai from the Division of Commerce in the Community College of City University were 2nd runners-up with their business model for Hong Kong's health-care system.

They found that the health care system in Hong Kong is inefficient and thus they participated in this competition to project their ideas in improving the system.

“This was a great learning experience,” Thomas said. “We can make use of the analytical skills that we learnt in class to analyze data effectively. This helped us to write our business model more efficiently.”

In this year's competition, which was the 21st Business Administration Paper competition to be organized by the Hong Kong Federation of Business Students, more than 100 papers were submitted from business students at the eight local higher institutions. But only four were selected for the final by the judging committee, highlighting the quality of the work submitted by the two CityU students.

The judging committee was formed by professors from the eight local higher institutions and the competition took place on 24 February at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Thomas and Steve said participating in the event had helped them better identify their own strengths and weaknesses. “This competition broadened my horizons and built up my confidence,” Steve said. “I also realized that my language ability, adaptability and presentation skills still have room for improvement.”

The judging committee was impressed because the CityU students' paper was highly creative and was supported with plenty of data.

The aim of the Business Administration Paper competition is to strengthen participants' confidence and presentation skills. This year students had to create a new business model for addressing health-care issues in Hong Kong.

To tackle the challenge, the CityU team conducted a comprehensive survey that investigated the needs of the medical service and the pros and cons of the local health-care system. Their paper suggested the introduction of a voucher system.