HONG KONG, 21 August 2019: The JNA Awards is honouring three outstanding leaders from the jewellery industry as Recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award. Sharing the same passion and a dream, these entrepreneurs have each transformed the retail sector and influence the industry in their own respective way.
Cao Thi Ngoc Dung, Founder and Chairperson of Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ); Hung Ming Li, Founder and Chairman of Taiwan-based Chii Lih Coral (Chii Lih); and Wang Chun Li, Managing Director and General Manager of Beijing Caishikou Department Store (Beijing Caibai) will be honoured at the JNA Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner on 17 September during the September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair.
“The JNA Awards was founded to recognise innovative ideas, best-in-class business practices and successful business models. Honouring these ladies with such vision and perseverance exemplifies what this award stands for,” explained Letitia Chow, Chairperson of the JNA Awards and Director of Business Development – Jewellery Group at Informa Markets.
Cao Thi Ngoc Dung
Cao began with the intention of reviving the traditional Vietnamese jewellery industry. Believing that “anything that can be made overseas could be made domestically,” she persevered and engaged in self-research by joining jewellery expos, visiting and studying large jewellery factories across Asia, and investing on state-of-the-art technology that would become essential in growing PNJ.
Under Cao’s leadership, PNJ has grown from an initial team of 20 to become the largest jewellery retailer in Vietnam employing nearly 7,000 staff. Its products are carried in nearly 400 outlets in 55 provinces, and PNJ has brought Vietnamese jewellery to the global scale by exporting to 13 countries.
In 2012, PNJ was ranked 16th in the top 500 list of the world’s largest jewellery, manufacturing and trading companies by Plimsoll UK. She was also recognised as one of Forbes Vietnam’s Top 50 Most Influential Women in 2018 and 2019; and one of its Top 50 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs in Asia in 2016.
On receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, Cao said, “I would like to sincerely thank the JNA Awards organiser for this honour. This award has brought me pride and has motivated me even more in contributing to the growth of PNJ and the Vietnamese jewellery industry in general.”
Click here to view full press release on Cao Thi Ngoc Dung.
Hung Ming Li
Hung established Chii Lih in 1973 with the mission of promoting Taiwan’s most precious gem corals to the world. Under her leadership, the company has evolved from being a small traditional coral processing factory and wholesaler in Kaohsiung, to a world-renowned jewellery enterprise over the past 40 years.
“Looking at the coral dredged up from the sea, my heart was deeply touched. I have been thinking that these are very precious marine resources and national treasures from Taiwan. We should bring such a local industry to greater heights of development and glorify it from our land,” she shared.
While many decided to leave the coral gemstone industry when the economy declined in the ‘90s, Hung stayed true to her convictions that coral would always be one of the most important treasures of Taiwan. Along with her staff, she persevered and continued to weather the economic turmoil.
To stay on course, Hung actively participated in international jewellery tradeshows in Asia, America and Europe to strengthen Taiwan’s reputation as the “Coral Kingdom,” and is eventually recognised as a leading company in this sector.
Click here to view full press release on Hung Ming Li.
Wang Chun Li
When Wang was the head of yellow gold products department at Beijing Caibai, which was operating as a department store at that time, she led a modest team to create a special strategy for selling yellow gold jewellery.
Through the years, Wang went from one achievement to the next, becoming the first enterprise in China to sell CNY 100 million (USD 14.5million) of yellow gold in 1994. In the same year, Wang, together with her management team, successfully restructured Beijing Caibai from a state-owned company to a private share-holding structure by raising funds from its employees and legal person. Beijing Caibai eventually became a specialised gold jewellery store, consistently topping sales chart in Beijing and retail stores in China for 29 years.
Besides from providing excellent after-sales service, she was insistence in protecting consumers on the authenticity by ensuring products sold under her obtained certification from global standardisation and exercising strict quality-control along the supply chain.
Under her leadership, the company was named “The First Yellow Gold House in Beijing” by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce in 1997, joined the Shanghai Gold Exchange in 2001, and was recognised as “The First Gold House in China” by the Association of China Commercial Enterprise Management in 2004. Nowadays, gold, platinum, jade and diamond jewellery are sold at Beijing Caibai, it has been honoured as “Global Leading Platinum Jewellery Enterprise” and “The First Coloured Gemstone House in China” by Platinum Guild International and The International Colored Gemstone Association respectively.
Click here to view full press release on Wang Chun Li.
The JNA Awards is supported by Headline Partners Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, the Shanghai Diamond Exchange, and DANAT, together with Honoured Partners KGK Group, China Gems and Jade Exchange, and Guangdong Land Holdings Limited.
