biz.hk May 2013

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Journal of The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong

2013 China Conference: Charting Hong Kong's Future

www.amcham.org.hk

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May 2013

ble a l i a v A h

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Your Best Guidebook for Settling in Hong Kong Living in Hong Kong is a compendium-style all-you-need-to-know guide for newcomers to

school, getting settled when arrived and enjoying life in Hong Kong. This consumeroriented book is designed as a sort of “hotline� with useful phone numbers and contacts to other sources of help.

Living in Hong Kong bookshops in Hong Kong. AmCham members often buy the book for their relatives and Americans), the book is one of the best-selling publications for AmCham.

Contact: AmCham Publication Department Advertising Manager: Regina Leung Direct Line: 2530 6942 Email: rleung@amcham.org.hk

May 2013 Vol 45 No 5

Contents

Richard R Vuylsteke

Editor-in-Chief Daniel Kwan

Managing Editor Kenny Lau

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Publisher

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COVER STORY

FINANCIAL SERVICES

EDUCATION

ENTERPRENEURS/SME

Top business executives, government officials and academics gather at the annual China Conference to discuss “Hong Kong’s Role in China’s Next Round of Reform” and issues deemed essential to the city’s competitiveness as a global financial hub

Chairman of Hong Kong’s Financial Services Development Council Laura Cha shares her insights on China’s on-going financial reform and how the city can continue to play a major role in the process

The Savannah College of Art and Design opened a campus in Hong Kong in 2010.

Associate VP Grant Pressier explains the vision of the institution and what students learn in a vibrant international city

A business venture by 3 HKUST MBA students who partnered to form Solaris, an award-winning startup tech company which bridges innovation in the field of solar energy to the commercial market

Advertising Sales Manager Regina Leung

biz.hk is a monthly magazine of news and views for management executives and members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

Its contents are independent and do not necessarily reflect the views of officers, governors or members of the Chamber.

Advertising office 1904 Bank of America Tower 12 Harcourt Rd, Central, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2530 6900 Fax: (852) 2537 1682 Email: amcham@amcham.org.hk Website: www.amcham.org.hk Printed by Ease Max Ltd 2A Sum Lung Industrial Building 11 Sun Yip St, Chai Wan, Hong Kong (Green Production Overseas Group) Designed by Overa Creative Co Unit 1613, 16/F Workingbond Commercial Centre 162 Prince Edward Road West, Kowloon ©The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, 2013 Library of Congress: LC 98-645652 For comments, please send to biz.hk@amcham.org.hk

AMCHAM NEWS AND VIEWS 04 Editorial As Asia’s World City offering convenience, information, and support for senior executives doing business in the region, Hong Kong is closely monitoring the political and economic development in Myanmar, a country poised to provide tremendous investment opportunities

07 New Business Contacts 32 executives joined AmCham’s business network last month

40 Mark Your Calendar

16 Clear and Simple: ‘We Are Open for Business US Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sanchez speaks on Chinese investment in the US, international trade barriers and US President Barack Obama’s National Export Initiative

EDUCATION 20 At the Cutting Edge The Savannah College of Art and Design opened a campus in Hong Kong in 2010. Associate Vice President Grant Pressier of SCAD Hong Kong explains the vision of the institution and how students can benefit from the best of both worlds

COVER STORY

24 Why We’ve Chosen SCAD Hong Kong

08 Hong Kong’s Role in China’s Next Round of Reform Top business executives, government officials and academics gather at AmCham’s 2013 China Conference to discuss “Hong Kong’s Role in China’s Next Round of Reform” and issues deemed essential to the city’s competitiveness as a global financial hub

13 Charting the Future Course for Hong Kong Chairman of Hong Kong’s newly established Financial Services Development Council Laura Cha shares her insights on China’s on-going financial reform and how the city can play a major role in the process

Testimonials of students from nearby Southeast Asian countries currently enrolled in the American art school here in Hong Kong and how they get to learn in a vibrant international city

COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING 30 The Pursuit of Perfect Sound President of Sennheiser Greater China Marc Vincent shares the story of how an OEM for electronic instruments in a small village in Germany became a global leader in the development of electroacoustics equipment

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT 34 Boosting Your Company’s Leadership Managing Director of Hong Kong-based consultancy Leading Organisations Mitya New reveals a trend of changing leadership style in Asia where high levels of transparency, responsibility and accountability are expected

TALK-TO-AUTHOR 38 Daddy’s Logic: Live a Full and Complete Life

ENTREPRENEURS/SME 26 Path to Success

Author of a new book for people “who want a commonsensical approach to being the CEO of their own lives,” Anthony Rose talks candidly in an interview about basic principles towards a rewarding personal and professional life

A new business venture by 3 HKUST MBA students who partnered to form Solaris, an award-winning startup tech company which bridges innovation in the field of solar energy to the commercial market

Single copy price HK$50 Annual subscription HK$600/US$90

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COVER SPONSOR

biz.hk Editorial

Board of Governors Chairman James Sun Vice Chairman Peter Levesque Treasurer Tom Burns Executive Committee Evan Auyang, Janet De Silva, Anita Leung Philip Leung , Belinda Lui, Alan Turley Richard Weisman Governors Sara Yang Bosco, Brian Brenner, Ewan Copeland Walter Dias, Rob Glucksman, Toby Marion Jim Muschalik, Thomas Nelson Catherine Simmons, Colin Tam Elizabeth L Thomson , Frank Wong, Eden Woon Ex-Officio Governor President

Robert Chipman Richard R Vuylsteke

Chamber Committees AmCham Ball Apparel & Footwear China Business Communications & Marketing

Rex Engelking Andre Leroy Seth Peterson Lili Zheng Roxana Daver

Corporate Social Responsibility

Robert Grieves

Energy Entrepreneurs/SME Environment

Rick Truscott Donald Austin Courtney Davies Corey Franklin Brock Wilson Veronica Sze Damien Lee Peter Liu

Financial Services Food & Beverage Hospitality & Tourism Human Capital Information & Communications Technology Insurance & Healthcare

Rex Engelking

Owen Belman Hanif Kanji Intellectual Property Gabriela Kennedy Amy Lee Law Clara Ingen-Housz Pharmaceutical Stephen Leung Real Estate Neil Anderson Alan Seigrist Senior Financial Forum Alvin Miyasato Senior HR Forum Jacqueline Algar Sports & Entertainment Ian Stirling Taxation TBA Trade & Investment Patrick Wu Transportation & Logistics Jared Zerbe Women of Influence Anne-Marie Balfe Anna-Marie C Slot Young Professionals Alison Carroll

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ON THE RADAR

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or decades, Hong Kong has enjoyed the “front row seat” advantage in witnessing, observing, and participating in the transformational changes taking place in Asia Pacific. These changes – reforms and opening of China, economic miracles of the Asian Tigers, and the rise of the emerging economies in Southeast Asia – are cornerstones in the global shift of economic power from the West to the East.

One such exciting change in recent years is Myanmar. Military rule has ended and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is no longer under house arrest. She now sits in Parliament, along with many of her colleagues from the National League for Democracy. In fact, many hope that the Lady will win the general election in 2015 and become the country’s next president.

US President Barack Obama made history last year by becoming the first American president to visit Myanmar.

This month, his counterpart, President Thein Sein, paid a return visit to Washington and was greeted at the White House.

Thein Sein is the first Burmese head of state to visit the US since the military dictator General Ne Win took control in 1966 – almost half-a-century ago.

It is encouraging that Myanmar is embracing both political and economic reforms. Foreign businesses – especially firms from Korea and Japan – have taken aggressive steps to establish bridgehead posts in the once pariah state. It is encouraging that the business community is taking the opening of the country and the opportunities it presents seriously, but the reforms taken so far are just first steps, with much more to be done.

First, Myanmar faces a huge problem in terms of capacity building.

It has a long list of “lack of” – from electricity supply to legal support. The truth is that Myanmar is an emerging market from a very low baseline. Half a century of isolation means there are too many holes and gaps to be filled before the country can reasonably handle the growing influx of foreign capital and trade in an Internet-age fashion. By the same token, investors who are genuinely interested in Myanmar may need to be a bit more patient.

Second, engagement is critical.

Foreign countries and economies can do much good by engaging with different stakeholders in Myanmar. Visits by dignitaries are one form of engagement. Businessmen, government leaders, tourists and students can make important contributions as the

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international community welcomes Myanmar and brings the country in from the cold. But engagement works much better if it is not overly limited.

That’s why it’s important that the US government should continue to review the Specially Designated List, which prohibits dealings with certain Burmese businesses and individuals.

Bear in mind that the military has run the country for decades. If the country can be turned around, it’s fair to hope that many of the former leaders can be turned around too.

Third, external pressure is important. Engagement doesn’t mean not being critical. Reforms in Myanmar clearly have a long way to go. Political prisoners, ethnic and religious conflicts in Kachin and Arakan states, and democratic reforms are all thorny issues. It is reasonable to believe that President Thein Sein and his team will be able to work more effectively to resolve those issues if they know the outside world is watching.

So who’s watching Myanmar? As Asia’s World City, Hong Kong offers convenience, information, and support for senior executives doing business in the region. Myanmar is definitely on the radar, and many Hong Kong executives are closing watching developments.

biz.hk 5 • 2013

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New

Business Contacts

w w w. a m c h a m . o r g . h k

The following people are new AmCham members: Baker & McKenzie

Jefferies

Ralph Lauren Asia Pacific Limited

Christopher Smith Partner

Cynthia Meng Managing Director

Lawrence Chi Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Asia Pacific

BALtrans International Moving Ltd Terry Ip Sales Manager

BNY Mellon Alan Harden CEO, Investment Management Asia Pacific

JPMorgan Chase Bank Tim Evans Private Banker

Kim & Chang Scott Steele Senior Tax Director

Kimberly-Clark CEIBS

Over 500 pages in three major sections, including a complete guide to chamber services, corporate sponsors and AmCham Charitable Foundation. This directory lists over 1,800 members from over 700 companies and organizations.

ISBN 978-962-7422-18-1

LC 98-645651

Lisa Zou Alumni Chapter Head

ecVision Ltd Mike Hill Business Development Director

Leysin American School in Switzerland

CLS Communication HK Ltd Tommy Fai Business Development Manager

Hear Talk Foundation Michael Tong Chairman, Executive Committee

Jonathan Hilton Director of Admissions, Far East

Clifton Tang Business Development Manager

Albert Chan ABO Marketing Director/ HK Operations Manager

Telstra International Group Han Kotterman Executive Director, Strategy & Business Development

Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific Alisa Matthews Public Relations Coordinator, CNN Communications

Wallem Group Limited Deborah Koshy Group Head of HR

Phoelia (Far East) Co Ltd

Grace Liang Head, Shenzhen MBA Office

Brian Leung CEO Banny Poon Senior District Manager Sandi Poon Director

InterCall

Protiviti Hong Kong Co Ltd

Alexia MacPherson Senior Manager - Unified Communications

Brian Kostek Manager

Hong Kong University of Science & Technology

Sovereign Trust (Hong Kong) Limited

Sunrider Int'l (HK) Ltd George Xu Vice President Allan Wang Dept Director of Sales, Residential Lighting Roger Zhu Sales Manager, Commercial and Public Lighting Giselle Aloi Marketing Manager, Commercial and Public Lighting Kellen Yang Marketing Manager, Residential Lighting Eder Lee President

Jason Wortendyke Managing Director, Citigroup Global Markets Asia

Tom O'Reilly President, Asia Pacific

April Lai Managing Director, Hong Kong

Leedarson Citi

Rockwell Automation International Holdings LLC

View our other members at:

http://www.amcham.org.hk/index.php/AmChamMembers.html

biz.hk 5 • 2013

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COVER STORY

What Role for Hong Kong in China’s Next Round of Reform?

AmCham Hong Kong’s reinstated annual China Conference was held in May. The following is a summary report of selected conference discussions

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he 2013 AmCham Hong Kong China Conference was held on May 10th at the Four Seasons Hotel.

Close to 200 top business executives, government officials, and academics attended the one-day meeting entitled “Hong Kong’s Role in China’s Next Round of Reform.”

The conference, which built on the success of last year’s forum, followed a similar interactive format featuring more than 20 top-notch speakers in five different panels. Two keynote speakers – Laura Cha, Chairman of Financial Services Development Council, and Francisco Sanchez, US Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade – offered two distinctively different but powerful analyses of some of the dynamics of the latest development in China, the US and Hong Kong. (For reports on the two keynote speakers,

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see pages 14 and 19) The central theme of the conference – China’s next round of reforms – covered a wide range of subjects. In order to capitalize on the rich expertise and knowledge of the panelists, the panels focused on different industries and sectors. The first and the last panels were opened to the general audience while the other three panels were held concurrently, giving participants a choice of “hot topics” that suited their own business interests.

Changing times The first panel, “Managing in China’s New Business Landscape,” was moderated by Thomas Gorman, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Fortune China. It featured three distinguished speakers: David Cunningham, President of Asia Pacific Division of

FedEx, Professor Michael Enright of the University of Hong Kong’s School of Business, and Andrew Weir, Regional Senior Partner & Global Chair of Real Estate and Construction of KPMG. Gorman set the scene by painting the picture of a fast-changing China and how two decades of rapid growth have affected the ways foreign businesses operated in the country. He recalled when the first AmCham China Conference was held in 1993, it was entitled “Business Opportunities in the Greater China Region.”

“Today, that sounds pretty pedestrian. But at the time, ‘Greater China’ was a brand new term in the business lexicon,” said Gorman who was AmCham Chairman in 1995. “The point is that 20 years ago we sat in a different room looking at the business future and we could not possibly have anticipated the size and scope of the

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changes that have happened.”

“1993 was less than five years before the Hong Kong handover,” he said.

“Then, MNC’s were only focused on four cities in China as markets – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Today, many of them are wrestling with the issue of not of marketing and servicing four urban markets in China – but 40 or 400.

That’s an enormous structural change which implies a very different way of doing business … and it also implies a very different role for Hong Kong.”

The changes are phenomenal, said both Professor Enright and Weir, and they have led many foreign companies to rethink their China – and their global – strategies. “Increasingly we are seeing China separated out from the Asia or the Asia-Pacific management structure, simply because it’s so important,” observed Professor Enright.

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In addition, the fact that more and more Chinese companies are “going global” has also changed the rules of the game for international business. For example, Weir recalled how the flow of investment has changed course in the past 20 years.

“What’s interesting is how the world has turned. Fifteen years ago, we were involved in the acquisition of Shanghai Water by Thames Water. Last year, we were involved in the [acquisition of] Thames Water by China Investment Corporation (CIC),” Weir said referring to China’s top sovereign wealth fund.

“Ten years ago, the worries of foreign investors going into China would be the change of the regulatory environment [in China]. It’s now the concern of Chinese companies investing in Europe and the US that the regulatory environment could change

very quickly.

“Our sense is that there’s still a big pot of [Chinese] capital looking to go overseas – a great demand for this capital in Europe and the States but somehow the deals aren’t quite working.”

The battlefield and opportunities Another dimension of such phenomenal changes was discussed in another panel - China's War for Talent. As an increasing number of foreign brands produce - and sell - in China, competition for talent in the China market has intensified. According to Kate Bravery, Regional Leader, Leadership & Talent Solutions for Mercer's Asia, Middle East and Africa business, rapid growth has created a highly competitive market for sharp people in China. “As a consequence [of rapid growth], a lot of people

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either don't have the talents that they need or they are losing the talents that they want to keep,” she said.

“We have found that many organizations in Asia lack confidence in the education system to solve the skill shortage. In a global study of over 1,200 organizations, only 22 percent in Asia believed that education institutions would deliver the talent needed to meet their future business needs.” She further remarked, that “if you link this finding with our recent study on leadership practices across Asia - where we found an under investment in frontline leader training, it is clear that not enough is being done to solve the talent challenges and ensure the economic future of the region.”

“One of the things that we’ve learned is that a lot more organizations [in mainland China] are putting in place a talent strategy or a leadership strategy,” she said quoting from a Mercer study conducted in 2012 that surveyed 660 companies in the region.” But the focus is still on short-term actions and too often than not, not a response to strategic workforce planning.”

Liu Mingkang, formerly Chairman of China Banking Regulatory Commission and currently Honorary Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was another speaker who attracted much interest from the participants. In analyzing China’s future, Liu identified 10 areas that offer great potential to Hong Kong and international companies and service providers in the coming decades: legal services, green technology, energy, entertainment, aviation, shipping and advanced transportation, healthcare, financial services, information and communication, urbanization, and food and beverage.

When asked to compare Shanghai and Hong Kong, Liu said Shanghai is the ideal place in China to become an international financial center. “Shanghai is comparatively rich in talents … and Shanghai is very commercial. Historically, it is a very cosmopolitan city.

Moreover, the government – from central to local level – is very eager to change.”

But he conceded that Hong Kong is ahead of Shanghai and that building

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Panel 1 (from left): Tom Gorman, Michael Enright, Andrew Weir and David Cunningham

Panel 3 (from left): Eden Woon, Robyn Meredith, Ronald Gould, Liu Mingkang and Jim Thompson

more digitalized in their daily lives and work.”

Panel 2 (from left): Seth Peterson, Kate Bravery, John Allison and Bin Wolfe

Question from the audience: Jon Parker of KPMG

financial infrastructure takes time. “So for quite a long time, Hong Kong is still Hong Kong – as an international financial center. I couldn’t see any contradiction in between,” Liu said.

“Instead, competition plus cooperation will bring many benefits to the two cities. As four eyes can see better than two. In the future Shanghai plus Hong Kong will make China much stronger.

It’s a win-win situation,” he added.

In another panel, Peter Koo, National Leader of Security, Privacy and Resilience

major telecom operators is spending over HK$750 million to set up a center in Tsang Kwan O in Hong Kong,” he said.

Koo expected that the digital market in China would continue to grow rapidly as the pace of urbanization speeded up.

“Obviously, the coastal areas are evolving from a manual or laborintensive area to become a more automated and digitalized environment,” he noted. “Even the rural and agricultural population will become

of Greater China Region of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, observed that there are three new trends of the digital markets in China, namely the rise of cloud computing, the BYOD (Bring-YourOwn-Device) movement, and the growing popularity of e-tablets.

“We’ve observed that most telecom operators are building their own cloud computing centers to prepare themselves for some kind of outsourcing services that they can provide to different enterprises. For example, one of the

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As reform increases pace, Gao expects more refinement of rules and procedures will be introduced soon.

“We expect for the short term the approval process for [the use of RMB] in foreign direct investment will become simplified and more transparent. As for trade settlement, you will see more transparency and simplified and streamlined processes … and that also applied to the documents required [for approval].”

According to Gao, reforms of China’s financial system will have positive impact on Hong Kong’s status as China’s offshore financial center. “In the long run, if the country’s capital account is fully open, and the country’s interest rate and exchange rate are fully liberalized, then it could exert positive impact on the mainland’s financial system and Hong Kong’s offshore yuan (RMB) financial center status,” he said.

Money talks

Hong Kong’s future

The panel on China’s financial reforms was moderated by Ewan Copeland, Vice Chairman of Global Corporate Bank of Citi, and featured a high-power panel including Gao Yingxin, Executive Director and Deputy Chief Executive of Bank of China (Hong Kong), Simon Ogus, CEO of DSG Asia, Mark Austen, CEO of Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and Lieven Debruyne, CEO, Regional Head of Distribution, Asia of Schroder Investment Management (Hong Kong).

Gao shared his views on the future of the internationalization of the Chinese currency, Renminbi, and some of the rationale behind the Central Government’s policies.

“The first priority of the People’s Bank of China is to serve the real economy, to facilitate trade and investment,” he said. “Then at the same time to support the development of offshore markets that would allow – with some restrictions and conditions – [overseas] financial institutions and participating banks to have a linked access to the mainland market.”

While the five panels focused on different aspects of China’s reforms, a common theme that ran across all five was Hong Kong’s future roles. In his analysis, Simon Ogus of DSG Asia said that the much talked-about development of Qianhai, Hengqin, and Nansha in Guangdong would present huge opportunities to Hong Kong in the medium term.

“The reality is that Hong Kong basically has a huge opportunity if the market is now available for Hong Kong [service] providers – and also international providers domiciled in Hong Kong – to start to invest in education, healthcare, old-age people coverage, back-offices for finance and the like.”

“My message would be that, yes, financial liberalization is at the forefront of Hengqin, Qianhai, and Nansha, but actually the broader opportunity for Americans, Brits, Hong Kongers or anyone else is that the Chinese are crying out for world-class services.”

Professor Enright of the University of Hong Kong was bullish on Hong Kong’s future too. He said Hong Kong

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Panel 4 (from left): Philip Leung, Sujith Abraham, Peter Koo and Richard Ji

Panel 5 (from left): Lieven Debruyne, Mark Austen, Simon Ogus, Ewan Copeland and Gao Yingxin

still stands out as the best place to do business in and out of China.

“Hong Kong needs to keep its international connectivity as China becomes more connected to the rest of the world. One of things that always sets Hong Kong apart is the fact that it’s better connected, better understands the rest of the world, and better integrated into the global economy,” Professor Enright pointed out.

He explained that by “connectivity” he meant more than just infrastructure. “It’s about mindset and understanding the business system and providing a seamless business environment for people coming from abroad.

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It’s open information flow. It’s the ability to get information from anywhere in the world and anywhere from China, and combining the two together. That’s the sort of connectivity that’s critical.”

When asked if he shares the worries that Hong Kong has become complacent over time, the professor said Hong Kong’s future is in its own hands. “Complacency? Perhaps there is some. In some quarters, the influx of fund and investment from the Mainland and the rest of the world has made it easier on Hong Kong. But Hong Kong people are pretty smart and they understand that Hong Kong has to

work on being more efficient, better educated, and more creative if it’s going to continue to prosper in the future.”

Ogus also reminded the audience that while Hong Kong faces a bright future as China pushes forward financial reforms, there are dangers ahead.

“The reality is that because of the RMB liberalization, and the financial market liberalization in general, Hong Kong is just a beautiful place to take advantage of yet another system of entrepreneurism,” Ogus noted.

“But I would also like to stress that in the case of Hong Kong, the risk is its ‘small mindedness.’ There are far too many people in my view who look at this as a zero sum game. It’s not. Quite frankly, if China gets even half of the things right that it’s said it’s going to do in the next 20 to 30 years, Hong Kong will benefit hugely. When I first came to Hong Kong a quarter of a century ago, people were fretting about the manufacturing going offshore.

Fine, it’s all gone. Hong Kong didn’t die.”

“We don’t need government planners to tell us what to do in Hong Kong. I think the entrepreneurial spirit of Hong Kong people is extremely strong still and we will manage.”

In addition to the “small mindedness” attitude, Ogus warned that reforms could be rolled back if things went wrong, especially in the case of China’s opening of the capital account.

“I am not a full believer in full-blown capital account liberalization out of China anytime soon. It’s because it’s quite useful for the mainland authorities to keep some regulations in place. And if all the restrictions are taken off, you may see an actually uncontrollable burst of capital coming out.”

“The risk is that as long as both the inflow and outflow sides [of capital] are relatively stable, the mainland authorities will be able to manage and be comfortable with the process. But if we start to see these destabilizing flows in one way or the other, there is no reason why these things – at least temporarily – could not be rolled back.”

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Laura Cha Shih May-lung

Charting the Future Course for Hong Kong For over two decades, Hong Kong has the advantage of being both a pioneer and a key beneficiary in China’s financial reform. Laura Cha Shih May-lung is among the few Hong Kongers who have directly participated in this journey of historic transformation. Currently Chairman of Hong Kong’s newly established Financial Services Development Council, Cha has brought to the table a wealth of experience, knowledge and insights about China’s financial market and Hong Kong’s future that few can rival

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aura Cha Shih Maylung, Chairman of Financial Services Development Council, opened AmCham’s 2013 China Conference with an address entitled “China’s Market Reform and the Role of Hong Kong: A Personal Perspective.”

In her speech, Cha traced the long journey of reforms of China’s capital market and shared her assessment of Hong Kong’s future. “I recount this bit of history because it seems particularly relevant today, when we ponder how to maintain and consolidate our position as an international financial center at this juncture in the face of keen competition in the region and around the world,” she told the an audience of more than 200 participants.

Leading the way Hong Kong, Cha pointed out, has participated in China’s financial market reforms from the very beginning. “This was in the days when a capital market was a new concept in China, when its domestic exchanges were less than two years old, and when the country’s company law and securities law were still on the drawing board,” she said, referring to the historic listing of the state-owned Tsingtao Brewery at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange 20 years ago.

“However, those of us who were involved at the time could never have imagined that this humble listing, which raised an amount of HK$889 million in 1993 … would usher in a new chapter in for Hong Kong’s financial market. To date, the second largest IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange was by another SOE, ICBC, which raised US$16 billion in 2006.

What a journey the state-owned enterprises have traveled!”

The transformation has been breathtaking. Two decades ago, Chinese enterprises were the new kids on the block. Today, they account for more than half of HKEx’s total market capitalization. Their presence in Hong Kong has fundamentally

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elevated the city’s status as a global financial center.

“Global financial institutions which previously considered our market to be too small and too parochial saw the potential of business in this new source of listing from China, and they therefore increased their presence in Hong Kong. With that came international capital and so did the international law firms and other financial professionals,” the FSDC Chairman said.

She pointed out that there were wide implications of these listings beyond the raising of funds. Through the listings of these SOE’s in Hong Kong, Mainland policymakers were able to push forward changes in the domestic system that otherwise would have been much harder to achieve.

“The discipline of listing on a public market, with the prospect of fresh capital, provided officials who run these SOE’s with the incentive and the impetus to segregate the

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non-core functions from the business of the enterprises and to adopt modern management and better corporate governance,” Cha said.

“So, before we realized it, Hong Kong took part, and in fact played an instrumental role, in China’s market reform in the early days of market liberalization,” said Cha, who was a vice-chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission from 2001 to 2004.

regional investors. The fourth – also a critical one – is if Hong Kong can play a part in the management of China’s huge foreign exchange reserves. “One can only imagine how this initiative will cement our position as a regional asset management center – if we were given a small part of it to manage in Hong Kong,” she noted.

But Cha reminded the audience

Hong Kong’s roles

“The two elements of our strength have always been the China factor and the international factor, which are complimentary to each other.

Having the China factor but not the international factor would make us just another city in China.

Having the international factor without the China factor would make us just another city in Asia.”

The “yesteryears” showed that Hong Kong’s success is in fact closely linked with China’s progress. As China continues to – and in many respects, accelerates – reform, Hong Kong stands to reap significant economic benefits in the process.

According to Cha, the Mainland is now again at a critical juncture of change.

“The economic and social development of the country has reached a stage that certain reforms could no longer be delayed. The desire for the new administration to tackle issues that have hindered reform and liberalization before has been voiced by academics as well as social commentators on the Mainland. It is particularly strong in the area of capital markets,” she pointed out.

“I do not intend to go into the reform issues here which are domestic in nature, but I wish to highlight some of the areas where Hong Kong could play a role, and in the process, benefit from them and consolidate our position as an international financial center.”

The first area regards the internationalization of the Chinese currency, Renminbi. Since the initiative was launched two years ago, Hong Kong has achieved impressive results in this field capturing 80 percent of RMB settlement business globally.

Secondly, Cha said Hong Kong can function as an intermediary as Mainland enterprises go global. Third, Hong Kong can serve as the wealth and assets management center for Mainland and

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that Hong Kong cannot solely rely on the China factor.

“Hong Kong’s success has always been based on our ability to leverage our close ties with and knowledge of Mainland China, with the desire of global players and investors to access the huge and fast developing, and yet quite not completely open, Chinese economy.”

“The two elements of our strength have always been the China factor and the international factor, which are complimentary to each other. Having the China factor but not the international factor would make us just another city in China. Having the international factor without the China factor would make us just another city in Asia,” she added.

Complacent In a follow-up interview with biz.hk, Cha sounded a cautious note about Hong Kong’s future, warning that the city risks being complacent if it fails to take the competition from other financial centers seriously.

“We see other financial centers being pro-active – and I would even say aggressive – in trying to get new businesses. We have our strengths, but we need to adapt to the times. In the early days other centers’ strengths are not as strong as ours… But now other people’s strengths are quite strong and we need to be more pro-active,” she said.

Will Shanghai become a threat to Hong Kong? The FSDC Chairman said: “Hong Kong and Shanghai will be friendly competitors – that’s no question. Shanghai will develop into an international financial center. It has the hinterland and it has a lot of strengths.

But we have the first mover advantage.

We have the track record.”

“Rule-of-law is not an isolated issue.

You have to have a track record to demonstrate and it’s not something that you can build like hardware. Shanghai has the advantage of being focused.

Perhaps [it’s] because they haven’t attained what they want to be so they try harder. We need to try harder too.”

Cha suggested that the city must be prepared for changes. “[What Hong Kong needs] is a collective change in attitude – be more pro-active. In particular things like the Lehman Brothers in the last few years do put our regulators on guard. So we hear a lot in the market that development should be considered. Obviously, having been a regulator myself, I fully understand where the regulators are coming from. I think a better balance can be struck.”

One area is the development of human capital if Hong Kong is to face its future challenges seriously. “Our universities produce a lot of graduates. But when we talk to the employers, the financial institutions, they say many of our graduates – if they can have a choice – they would not employ. Why?” Cha asked.

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U Clear and Simple: ‘We Are Open for Business’ Francisco Sanchez, US Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, frequently interacts with AmCham Hong Kong in roundtables and larger events. In May he was the keynote luncheon speaker at the Chamber’s 2013 China Conference

S Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sanchez has a clear and simple message for businesses interested in the US market: “We are open for business.”

“We are working with current and potential foreign investors every single day to help them explore investment opportunities in the United States,” said Sanchez at the annual AmCham China Conference held at the Four Seasons Hotel.

This “open arms” attitude is even more true when it comes to investment from Mainland China, despite widespread disbelief in the daily press, Sanchez says.

“When it comes to the US-China relationship, there are a lot of myths and a lot of misunderstandings. And it’s important that all parties cut through the noise and focus on what is real.

“The fact of the matter is that in the 21st century global economy — our fortunes and futures are tied together like never before. And as the world’s two largest economies — the United States and China must engage with each other to advance the shared goals of expanding opportunity and prosperity,” he says.

Truth of the matter In a follow-up interview with biz.hk, Sanchez reinforced his argument by pointing out that Chinese investment in the US has grown steadily in recent years. Only a very small number of investments by Chinese companies had been rejected, but these cases were often magnified by the media.

“Our relationship is a mutually dependent relationship, increasingly responding to opportunities in the market,” he says. “ In 2011 and 2012, we had record exports from the United States to China. In 2011, we were about US$104 billion. In 2012, we were over US$110 billion.

“On the investment side, we welcome Chinese investment and in fact it is the fastest-growing country

Francisco Sanchez

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biz.hk 5 • 2013

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17

making investment in the US. More investment is coming in at a faster pace from China than anywhere in the world. And American companies would welcome the opportunities to be able to invest even more in China. So we hope that we can see more investment restrictions on the Chinese side eliminated.”

Sanchez emphasizes that very few Chinese investment were subject to scrutiny by the Committee on Foreign Investment proposal in the United States (CFIUS) and even fewer were rejected.

“There are very few cases where Chinese investment has been denied.

More than 98 percent of the Chinese companies that wanted to do business and made investment in the United States have been able to do so.

“And the fact is that there has been an annual increase since 2006 – 71 percent every year. So, yes, I hear these concerns but the numbers just don’t represent it. It’s a misconception and it’s an unfortunate misconception. But the fact is Chinese companies like investing in America, and Americans welcome Chinese investment.”

Furthermore, Sanchez adds: “It is unfortunate that some people focus on the one or two or three cases. They go to CFIUS and are denied access [to the US market] but such cases represent maybe one-and-a-half percent of all of the investment that are made in the US

by Chinese companies.

“I would be very interested in hearing what they think about the 98.5 percent of Chinese businesses that don’t have to go through any approval process. They can come in and they are approved. I would be very curious to hear their thoughts about that.”

Trade barriers and TPP The Under Secretary stresses that in fact China and the US have worked very closely together through a number of bilateral channels including the Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) and US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade in

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tackling various trade and investment issues. “We work very actively through the JCCT,” he says. “ And we have working groups that meet very regularly with our counterparts in China to try to work through some of these issues. I hope that we can continue to make progress on a number of these barriers.”

Sanchez also challenged another popular myth -- that the Trans-Pacific Partnership was a ploy by the US to contain China and China was not welcomed to join.

“If China is willing to make the same commitments and commit itself to the same obligations that all the other TPP nations are committed to, we welcome Chinese participation in the TPP – whenever they want,” Sanchez says.

“If they are willing to commit themselves to the same obligations, then why wouldn’t we want to have China to be a part of it? Our purpose is to reduce barriers and increase the flow of trade.”

Hong Kong roles On facilitating US-Chinese trade and investment, Sanchez says that Hong Kong has a unique role to play.

“First of all, American companies are very comfortable doing business here. You (Hong Kong) have a long history of rule of law, intellectual property right protection, a great array of business services providers, and you understand the Chinese market.

“So they can be good partners in helping American companies. And [you are] a good example of how to create a good business climate. I think Hong Kong can play a central role in strengthening the ties between the

by the end of 2014.

“I’m proud to say that the United States has achieved significant progress towards these goals. We’ve had back-to-back record years of exports,” Sanchez said. “Last year alone, US businesses exported an all-time high of US$2.2 trillion in goods and services. And China was a key market in this growth.”

Sanchez thinks that the NEI is about on target on the increasing exports side, and he is confident that it will meet the job creation numbers by the end of next year.

Challenges ahead In both his address to the AmCham conference and the followup interview, Sanchez admitted that there are challenges to overcome in order for American companies to

contribute even more to China’s economic development and for Chinese companies to find opportunities in the US as they go global.

On the current budget sequester, Sanchez acknowledges that it has affected the Commerce’s work but everyone is working hard to minimize the impact.

“It affected every department,” he says. “We have to tighten our belt and we are still managing to serve our stakeholders and in particular American businesses though it is a little more challenging given the budget situation in Washington.”

“It makes us pause before we can necessarily fill vacant positions, for example. But it is my hope that we can make progress in Washington on a solution so that we don’t do damage to that very important mission of increasing trade and promoting investment. I am

The American Chamber of Commerce

United States and China.”

He singled out the upcoming “Think Asia, Think Hong Kong” symposium to be held in New York and Los Angeles next month and urged American and Hong Kong companies to make use of the opportunities to move trade and investment forward.

“It is important for American companies to know the opportunities that are here … it would help American companies to know that there are good partners and opportunities here, and they need to know about that,” he added.

The Under Secretary, whose main responsibilities include promoting US exports, reported that after more than three years of hard work, the National Export Initiative (NEI) is beginning to pay off. Launched by President Barack Obama in 2010, the NEI aims to double American exports and support an additional 2 million American jobs

biz.hk 5 • 2013

Charitable Foundation

hoping we can find the solution soon.”

He also admits that the US lags behind other investment destinations in that it doesn’t offer a one-stop-shop national investment program to assist foreign investors. But Sanchez assures investors that the SelectUSA initiative announced by President Obama in 2011 will provide capable and adequate support to foreign investors who want to understand and navigate in the US market.

“It’s also why I want to tell you that the Department of Commerce is hosting the inaugural SelectUSA Investment Summit later this year in Washington, D.C. — from October 31 to November 1,” he says. “This two-day conference will connect investors — both foreign and domestic — with US Economic Development Organizations to support business investment in the United States.”

I would like to donate: HK$ Name: Title: Company:

AmCham Charitable Foundation is the philanthropic division of AmCham which contributes to the community leveraging from its influence within the international business community in Hong Kong. Founded in 1985, the Foundation is governed by a Board of Trustees composed of Past Chairmen of AmCham resident in Hong Kong.

The Foundation emphasizes the importance of education, and presents scholarships to outstanding university and secondary students every year. The Foundation partners with the American Women’s Association (AWA), and provides financial assistance to smaller and lesser known charities helping children, elderly, and disadvantaged people with health and special needs. The Foundation also presents the Ira Dan Kaye Community Service Award recognizing committed volunteers who have served the community generously and giving a donation to the charity of the person’s choice.

Giving back to the community is a vital value of AmCham and it is made possible through donations from members & non-members, and fundraising events such as the AmCham Ball, and the Charitable Foundation Dinner.

Get involved!

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*The American Chamber of Commerce Charitable Foundation is an approved charity and tax exemptions for donations may be made under section 88 of the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Ordinance.

EDUCATION

At the Cutting Edge The Savannah College of Art and Design is one of the world’s leading art universities. The American university opened its first Asian campus in Hong Kong in 2010 at the North Kowloon Magistracy Building. Today, it has a student body of about 330 and is still growing. Grant Pressier, Associate Vice President of SCAD Hong Kong, shares with biz.hk the institution’s vision and the “best of both worlds” advantages it can offer

By Daniel Kwan

Grant Pressier

Photos courtesy of SCAD Hong Kong

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hen it was announced in 2009 that the Savannah College of Art and Design would open its first Asian campus in Hong Kong, it raised a few eyebrows. Skeptics said Hong Kong – the “cultural desert” – could not be compared with art capitals like New York, Paris, London, or Berlin. Bad location, they said.

But the truth is that SCAD made a careful decision to set up in Hong Kong, taking into account the vast transformation the city has gone through in recent decades. While Hong Kong was not known for its art market 20 years ago, it is definitely the emerging art hub in Asia today. Art Basel took over ART Hong Kong in

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2011 and it was a huge success this year. If the number of galleries is any guide to a city’s “art quality,” then Hong Kong is doing very well. In roughly a decade, Hong Kong has witnessed a burst of galleries, going from just a handful to nearly 100 today.

More excitement is in the pipeline.

The much-talked-about West Kowloon Cultural District is due for initial opening in 2015.

While Hong Kong may not have a long catalogue of world renowned painters, musicians, and photographers, the city is certainly not far behind the world’s leaders in a number of creative industries such as movies, fashion, and digital arts.

Today, Hong Kong is where the action is. Add Hong Kong’s unique brand of

entrepreneurism, and the city is an increasingly attractive place for burgeoning artists and art professionals. Hong Kong also stands out among Asian cities for its vibrant international character. It may be a cliché, but Hong Kong is truly where the East meets West, and it fulfills that mission better than any other Asian city.

These are some of the reasons why SCAD decided to come to Hong Kong three years ago, a time when the Hong Kong government was looking for a new tenant to conserve and make good use of the historic North Kowloon Magistracy building. Courting a world-leading American institution in art and design to Hong Kong, along with having SCAD’s reputation in heritage conservation, just fit the bill.

biz.hk 5 • 2013

The pay-off is evident. Since 2010, SCAD has invested HK$250 million to revitalize the building and, in 2011, it was recognized by the 2011 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation.

No other place Grant Preisser, Associate Vice President of SCAD Hong Kong recalls the decision-making process: “We looked all around the Asia. We looked at Shanghai, Singapore. We looked at these different places and what opportunities they would bring to us. No other place allowed us the flexibility to operate that Hong Kong provides, or offered the diversity and international population that Hong Kong gives our students.”

biz.hk 5 • 2013

“Our students get both US and local Hong Kong degrees. When we looking at other countries and cities, their governments were a bit too restrictive in governance and broad operation [compared with Hong Kong].”

In a broader context, the expansion

by SCAD into Hong Kong aligned with the American university’s long-term mission of providing cutting-edge world-class art and design education to students from around the world.

“When we look at our student body at Savannah College of Art and Design, where we started 35 years ago, we realize that it’s the Asian market that’s leading our international student population,” Preisser says. “That’s why we open our first international campus in

Asia and bring our American brand of education to their doorstep versus having them to come to Savannah or Atlanta.”

Local relevance Two strong emphases of SCAD Hong Kong are local relevance and being professionally focused. Preisser says the university wants to foster dialogues among local designers and industry leaders through exhibitions and seminars. For example, it hosted an exhibition in April – dubbed the “In the Mix” – of three groups of local artists and designers at its Moot Gallery as part of its SCAD Style 2013 signature events. “SCAD style is only one of many signature showcases of

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Promoting collaboration and interaction with local artists and designers is a focus of SCAD Hong Kong. At SCAD Style 2013, the university invited Charmode Luxury’s Christie Wo (first right), Joyce Boutique Holdings’ Bartley Ingram (second from right) and veteran lifestyle journalist Kitty Go (first left) and moderator Daniel Jeffreys (second from left) for a panel discussion entitled “The Bridge Between Art and Fashion�.

our commitment to supporting the development of art and culture in Hong Kong,� Preisser says.

Another SCAD focus is collaboration with industry. Since its establishment, the university has reached out to local businesses and global brands in order to stay abreast of current market trends and industry practices to help pave the way for its students in their career development. “We have done that already with companies like Yves Saint Laurent, American Greetings, and CLP. We also actively engage with mentors through our different programs,� says Pressier.

SCAD Hong Kong works closely with the industry to keep its curriculum relevant and in sync with what the market needs. “As we have operated

now for three years, we have been interactive with more and more prospective students and parents, tracking what they have been interested in and what they asked for,� he says. “We also research the market to assess what Hong Kong doesn’t have – or think about what we could bring in that might be a little bit different. So this past fall [2012], we launched seven programs in Fashion, Fashion Marketing and Management, Sequential Art, Painting, and Interior Design. That really starts to round us out as a true Art & Design university. This makes us unique in the tertiary education market in Hong Kong in the sense that there is no other university here that only offers Art & Design programs.�

Best-of-both-worlds One advantage of SCAD is that admission to one campus means admission to all. A SCAD Hong Kong student may start the program in Hong Kong and finish it in Savannah, Atlanta, or even in Lacoste, France.

This arrangement gives SCAD students the broad benefits. They can learn from the same curriculum worldwide, as transition from one campus to another means little more than having the necessary study visas and maybe some extra living expenses.

Although SCAD Hong Kong charges the same tuition as in Savannah or Atlanta, it offers generous financial aid to students who have such needs.

(Continues on page 24)

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biz.hk 5 • 2013 MOL number: 916/2012

(Continued from page 22) According to Pressier, the university has awarded nearly HK$31 million in financial aid to students at the Hong Kong campus as of September last year.

Pressier says he recognizes that while skeptics may claim Hong Kong has lagged behind cities like New York or London, the city actually is at the cutting edge of things that are shaping today’s art and design world. He says Hong Kong has helped him to understand his own place in a global society.

At the cutting edge “The benefit of Hong Kong – it was a big selling point to SCAD and I’ve seen it personally moving here – is the international quality and diversity in the city. At the same time, you have cultures that maintain their cultural integrity, and you can interact with these on a daily basis,” he says.

“The diversity of viewpoints and the diversity of perspectives are big challenges for me. Ultimately, it makes me open up as a person and truly understand my place in a global society,” he adds.

When asked what perspective Hong Kong students should select when studying, Pressier says: “First, I think they need to look at where they come from. Art should be an expression of where you are and what you know. Hong Kong is just now being tapped for inspiration and for what makes Hong Kong unique. I would encourage students stay in Hong Kong and continue to be part of the vanguard of defining that culture, that aesthetics, and that style versus simply adopting Western ideas.”

“SCAD has professors who have been educated in Paris, in the US, and in the UK. And now they are teaching here in Hong Kong. So you are going to get that [Western] point of view and that perspective as well. I would much rather be at the cutting edge of where design is going versus going backwards into established design communities like New York or Paris or Milan.”

Why We’ve Chosen SCAD Hong Kong: Miguel Santana –Cebu, Philippines.

Age 20. Major B.F.A. in Advertising I graduated from an international school in Hong Kong two years ago.

There are not a lot of schools in Hong Kong that provide Art & Design. The few that do don’t provide the same cohesive sort of traditional Art format that SCAD provides. I applied to some art universities in the US. But when I talked to the SCAD representatives who came to our school, I was absolutely sold on their programmes.

The great thing about SCAD is that we have campuses in the US and transitioning from Hong Kong to the US is an easy process – just get a student visa and you can go. There is no increase in tuition. You just pay for the extra living expenses, but otherwise it is just an easy transition. I am only staying in Hong Kong right now to save money so that when I have enough funds I can go to the Savannah campus and finish off my last year there.

I am also a little more comfortable here at SCAD in comparison to other local universities due to the smaller number of students. We have about 330 students here. Everybody knows everybody and there is a comfort level. We can easily converse and we are in the same age range. Aside from that, English is my first language. I was already having quite a difficult time trying to converse with some of the students and the staff at the other local universities. Here, it’s easy. Everyone speaks English.

My suggestion for other students? If they want to do Art and want to get the best programme they can but still stay in Hong Kong, SCAD is the way to go.

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Age 19. Major B.F.A. in Animation Since I was young, I have loved watching cartoons, reading comics, doing animate manga – that’s my life.

Most of my Indonesian classmates did not come to Hong Kong. Honestly, it wasn’t even slightly in my mind to study in Singapore or Australia, which are nearer to Indonesia, because there are a lot of Indonesian people there already. I wanted to be out of my comfort zone. I wanted to be independent and improve my skills. I also needed to improve my English.

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ENTERPRENEURS/SME

Path to Success Finding the right business partners isn’t easy. Mabel Sieh talks to three HKUST MBA students about their new business venture – Solaris. The new startup demonstrates that branching out to different disciplines and combining different experiences, knowledge and expertise can be the path to success

Team Solaris (from left): Simon Zhu, Clement Dieudonne and Nicky Loh, with “nanostructured solar cells”

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hen people of diverse cultural backgrounds and expertise come together, good things can happen. This has certainly been the experience of three MBA students – Clement Dieudonne from France, Nicky Loh from Singapore, and Simon Zhu from Mainland China.

Studying at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), the trio has formed a team called Solaris and has won the CEIBSBeijing Benz INNOVATEChina 2013 Entrepreneurship Challenge in March.

Last month, they also took home the Best Trade Show Award at the University of Oregon’s New Venture Championship.

Dream team “I’ve been brainstorming new business ideas with an entrepreneur friend for the past four years but never

26

been able to get my hands dirty until now,” says 30-year-old Dieudonne from Paris.

“It was my dream to recruit a team out of my classmates in the engineering community to start a technology company in solar power, which is my passion and something close to my heart,” says CEO of Solaris who has a Master of Science degree from the US. Before taking the plunge, Dieudonne worked as a business development manager in Silicon Valley, leading a team selling machines used in solar panel manufacture to customers in China and Japan.

“We met in August last year in our dorm. Every now and then, we would share our ideas and passions. We’re not just from different cultures but also with different experiences and expertise; it’s a good mix of synergy,” says Nicky Loh. “This is my first entrepreneur experience and I feel extremely happy and proud to be part of the team,” says

26-year-old COO of Solaris with a degree in Engineering in Marine Technology with Honours in Naval Architecture from the UK, plus six years of experience as a Naval Engineering Officer of the Singaporean Navy.

CFO Simon Zhu, 29, has worked as an investment services analyst in Boston, US after obtaining a management degree there. Later, he moved back to China where he worked for a private equity company as an investment associate. His financial expertise has served the team well.

“I have a lot of responsibilities in terms of planning and execution required of me and it is very demanding.

But the awards and recognitions have motivated me to keep going,” says Zhu.

Solaris Solaris is an intellectual property licensing company using a patented technology to enable manufacturers to

biz.hk 5 • 2013

produce solar panels that are lighter, more flexible and cost effective. The new technology, “nanostructured solar cells,” was invented by Assistant Professor Fan Zhiyong and his team at the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering at HKUST. The invention is a cost-effective surface treatment on aluminum which renders more flexible and lighter solar cells. It has been proven in the laboratory to be 40 percent more efficient than current ones made of silicon, glass and stainless steel that are heavier and more energy taxing. The three-dimensional structure, which is independent of the orientation of the sun, also makes solar cells more efficient in absorbing light.

An innovative technology like this needs to be put into the market to create a real social impact. That is where Solaris comes in.

“We are lucky to find three students to work with us to help commercialize this technology which can help to

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improve our daily life. We need a practical team of people to fill our business gap,” says Professor Fan. Being the only one who has prior experience in the green energy market, Dieudonne sees a great deal of potential in the future of the technology.

“No matter what your position is on climate change, I believe solar power is a great alternative and a great form of renewable energy. We are only at the beginning of this type of energy. There is a lot of room for improvement and there are so many exciting applications of solar ahead of us!” says Dieudonne. “It’s wonderful that in UST we are allowed to have cross-disciplinary collaboration with other departments,” he adds.

Engage, try and fail Starting up something new is exhilarating, but it can also be a daunting experience. That is why the three young men fully appreciate having mentors to

Professor Fan Zhiyong of HKUST

guide and offer them solid and good support along the way. One such person is Professor Wu Po-chi of HKUST’s Department of Business and Management and Director of Entrepreneurship Minor Program.

“Professor Wu has been very helpful

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Professor Wu Po-chi of HKUST's Dept of Business and Management (far right) discusses entrepreneurship in "startup" technology programs.

in giving us good feedback on our plan.

In the business world, everything changes so fast and it’s important to feel safe while taking risks. Feeling supported by others is very important,” says Dieudonne.

“The only way to learn how to be an entrepreneur is to engage, try and fail.

It’s what happens in the real world. The challenge is to find something new and persuade people that it has value. It’s not easy because people resist change,” says Professor Wu. Loh is fully aware of the challenge.

“People have their doubts and concerns for different reasons when we presented the technology and our idea to them.

We’d need to consider them and reflect on our business plan. Until today, we are still making changes. We will keep on convincing people that we don’t just think it’s a good idea but we can make it work for them,” he says.

Throughout the process, the team has been honing their soft skills such as

28

communication, which is also a key to success in the business world.

“Our different cultural mix has brought for us many different perspectives and enhanced our decision-making process to achieve better performance.

However, it also means more time to manage our differences and conflicts and work as a team. Sometimes we’d have to repeat our ideas to get the message across and to be fully understood. I’ve learnt from the other two as how to better my communication and interpersonal skills, and these skills will help me to be a better leader,” says Zhu.

A journey As with any new business, Solaris has just started a journey facing unpredictable turns and results. But already some investors have expressed interest and are engaged in discussion, which has only strengthened their commitments.

“I am persistent and a man with a

‘can-do’ spirit, and I will keep on improving my business and leadership skills. I hope I can take the company to the next level and we can start generate revenue,” says Zhu. “It’s been an amazing journey and a great learning experience. By lowering the cost and increasing the applications of solar power, I expect we can deliver tangible benefits of this new technology to the world and not letting it remain in laboratory,” Loh says.

“As an entrepreneur, you need to be a geek in the area of business, breathing it in and out, following the latest trend, sharing your thoughts passionately, and have a thick skin to sustain the highs and lows of the startup days,” says Dieudonne.

“Sometimes I have trouble keeping my head cool, but I feel better every morning thinking I’d contribute to a greener and healthier world, than contribute to more video games,” he says.

biz.hk 5 • 2013

COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING

for seven years, but it feels like I just arrived two years ago because so much has happened and so quickly.”

How it began

Marc Vincent

The Pursuit of

Perfect Sound

For more than 65 years, sound professionals have consistently valued the unsurpassed quality and reliability associated with Sennheiser. Marc Vincent, President of Sennheiser Greater China, shares the story of how an OEM for electronic instruments in a small village in Germany became a global leader in the development of electro-acoustics equipment

By Kenny Lau

Marc Vincent, President of Sennheiser Greater China, showcases the iconic HD 414 headphones (left) and the latest model,“Momentum.”

M

arc Vincent is no stranger to the “pursuit of perfect sound.” Starting out as a young DJ with a mobile system, he found his passion in music when featuring in events and clubs in his hometown of Montreal, Canada in the 1970s. He later went on to become a sound engineer mixing live music and managing recording

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studios including those for Hollywood sound engineering masters George Lucas and Gary Rydstrom.

Over the years, Vincent has developed a long-standing relationship with Sennheiser, a pioneer and global leader in the development of electroacoustics equipment. For nearly a decade in the 1980s, he managed distribution of Sennheiser pro equipment across Canada; after running his

own projects for 13 years, he rejoined Sennheiser Canada in 2000 as VP of Sales and Marketing, taking an interest as an audiophile to showcase Sennheiser’s renowned quality to audio professionals and consumers alike.

As President of Sennheiser Greater China, Vincent is now responsible for all aspects of the audio giant’s product line and brand development in the

biz.hk 5 • 2013

region, a role he started in the fall of 2006 with only four people in two offices. The subsidiary has since grown to 85 employees and will have more than 100 by the end of the year as a result of growing brand recognition in rapidly expanding markets all over China.

“We are growing very fast,” Vincent says, noting Sennheiser’s founding nearly 70 years ago. “I have been here

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The 20th century was a golden era of rapid advancement in sound technology, and it marked a dramatic evolution in how the human voice – and music – could be amplified in front of a large live audience or be recorded and reproduced any time for personal enjoyment. The science of acoustics and sound waves became a highly specialized field of scientific research, which led to invention of products for a wide range of industries.

Among the academia was a young German electrical engineer named Fritz Sennheiser who became interested in speech synthesis and electronic instruments in the mid1930s while working for the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Vibration Research in Berlin. Little did he know at the time that a small “craft” business he founded in June 1945 in a building that had remained intact from the war would drastically change the audio industry and people’s lifestyle in the decades following.

“Sennheiser actually started in a simple way, and it began in an 18th century half-timbered farmhouse in a tiny village called Wennebostel,” Vincent notes. “It is a beautiful historic structure once used as a youth hostel before it became a lab for radio frequency engineering and electroacoustics research in 1943 as part of the University of Hanover where Pro Dr Fritz Sennheiser taught.”

Surprisingly, much of the equipment, machines and material to produce voice coils for manufacture of microphones remained at the lab after the war, affording Sennheiser and his seven fellow scientists to make electronic measuring devices and microphones as an OEM for Siemens.

“Laboratorium Wennebostel,” or “Labor W” for short, was hence born and supplied finished products at a time when procurement was difficult to source.

By the end of the first decade, Labor W’s engineers had already developed a line of professional instruments, including noise-canceling microphones, geophones for tracing natural gas and oil deposits, and speech encoders for the diplomatic service. An iconic product introduced during the period was the MD 21, a superbly built, rugged dynamic microphone and a model still in production to date.

“The MD 21 is an omni-directional microphone and is truly a legend,” Vincent says. “It made debut at the German Industrial Fair in Hanover in 1952, and a large number of them are still in use for their supreme audio quality. Along with the directional version called MD 421, of which more than 30,000 units were sold in less than four years, Sennheiser microphones have become a familiar brand of high quality in the industry.”

A breakthrough As Labor W was renamed Sennheiser electronic around 1957 to better capture the global market, it invented the world’s first wireless microphone, which would allow complete freedom of movement on stage and open up tremendous opportunities in radio and television broadcast. The technology would also pave way to the development of wireless headphones for the hi-fi community in a brand new market segment.

The international market for home and personal audio started to grow significantly in the 1960s, a time when Sennheiser introduced a number of audio systems for what was then an emerging market, including the Philharmonic hi-fi stereo system with active loudspeakers. Later in the decade, Sennheiser introduced an “extraordinary” product to the audio market and ignited a trend of personal entertainment systems as known to the world today.

Sennheiser’s invention in 1968 was a much smaller and lighter “open air” design of headphones, which would allow the listener to hear much more

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openly and freely in a way similar to placing two miniature loudspeakers right next to the ears. The new technology replaced heavy, bulky and rather uncomfortable “conventional” headphones with which the ear had to be completely sealed from the outside world in order to achieve proper sound reproduction.

“The HD 414 had a light plastic headband and yellow open-cell foam as ear pads, and it revolutionized personal audio entertainment on-the-go,” Vincent says of the headphones.

“People initially thought only a few hundred pieces would be sold each year because these headphones allegedly didn’t look stylish enough.

But, they sold in the millions within a few years after the launch, and production struggled to keep up with demand.”

“These headphones are not only light and comfortable but also create a whole different listening experience with a much wider soundstage that a symphony simply sounds a lot more open and natural, even by today’s standards” he adds. “Sony actually licensed the technology in the late 70s before they launched the Walkman, and NASA chose them for the Skylab in space, all for their high fidelity characteristics.”

Extreme quality For more than 65 years, sound professionals have consistently valued the unsurpassed quality and reliability associated with Sennheiser products.

For instance, many of the multichannel microphone systems developed years ago such as the 5000-series (9000-series being the latest model) remain a workhorse in a variety of professional settings and a benchmark by which all other systems are compared.

“Each of our series takes years and millions of dollars in R&D to develop,” Vincent notes. “Our extremely high quality engineering pays off in the long run because end users can count on our product and for a long time. It is a no-compromise world where

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malfunction is simply not an option.”

“It takes a lot of science, 70 years of experience and a strong commitment to ensure high quality,” he adds. “We have over 250 people in our R&D department, which is roughly 10 percent of the group’s workforce, which shows our strong desire to constantly improve on the technology and make exceptional products.

“It is a heritage of pride, excellence and an endless pursuit of perfect sound of a family business and an attribution to Fritz, his son Jörg and grandsons Daniel and Andreas whose surname is on every Sennheiser product.”

The Sennheiser Group has won a number of industry accolades and is the only audio engineering company to have received three of the most prestigious awards in the US: an Oscar in 1987 for the shotgun microphone, an EMMY

in 1996 for RF wireless technology, and a Grammy in 1999 for Neumann’s revolutionary microphone technology.

Pro Dr Fritz Sennheiser himself was awarded an AES Gold Medal in 2002 for his lifetime achievements.

“As a catalyst for all of the world’s communication needs, sound quality is and will always be our number one priority,” Vincent says. “But what’s more is that we are combining technology, taste and lifestyle in the design of our product so that we can bring the best of both worlds together for a wider audience.”

“When people purchase our product, they are not only buying a piece of electronic equipment but also a piece of history and a piece of mind,” he adds. “For some, they are actually making an emotional investment when buying a pair of high quality headphones that they dearly love.”

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BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Boosting Your Company’s Leadership Mitya New, managing director of Hong Kong-based consultancy Leading Organisations, talks to Helen Luk about the changing leadership style of Asia’s new generation and how it will impact corporate culture

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he advent of the Internet and social media has transformed people’s way of accessing information and raised their expectations on transparency. And that is shaking up the traditional, hierarchical structure of the Asian corporate world: The new generation of leaders is expecting greater responsibilities and accountability, according to management consultant Mitya New. “The younger people have completely different ideas about how they should interact with people who are more senior than them compared to the older generation,” New tells biz.hk in an interview at his Central office.

“Young managers are increasingly frustrated if they don’t have high levels of transparency, responsibility and accountability. They want it, they expect it, and they are no longer willing to accept less. The older generation doesn’t push so hard for that,” he says.

New has more than two decades of business development experience from working at leading international news organizations such as Thomson Reuters and Dow Jones. He has built and led teams in places as varied as Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Japan and India. In 2011, he set up Leading Organisations with two partners to advise senior executives on improving their leadership performance and the effectiveness of their teams.

Photos: Brian Production Ltd

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Working with clients mainly in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and India, the firm helps leadership teams design organizational structures and change the performance culture of their companies.

Among his clients are Chinese personal computer maker Lenovo, Big Four accounting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, and Zurich’s General Insurance business in Asia Pacific.

Generational shift In China and India, New says the speed and impact of generational change are much more apparent compared with mature markets like Hong Kong or Singapore, and the tension between the older and younger generation is intensifying.

“These younger people are seeing better ways of doing things because there is so much knowledge and information around,” he says. “Sometimes they have great ideas and they get very frustrated if these great ideas aren’t even discussed or considered – so that frustration is just building and it’s almost like a valve waiting to pop.”

Because there is still strong respect for older and more senior people in Asia, the younger managers tend to act more reservedly, but New predicts that this phenomenon will change in the coming years.

“Sometimes they would like to challenge their superiors and they don’t, but I know from working with them that if you put them in a room and the manager is not there, then they are very open – almost completely different people – but when the manager comes back, they don’t show that anymore,” he says. “At some point, that will change and they will no longer hold back because global competition is driving companies to performance.”

Growing demand New says this need to constantly improve leadership performance has spurred a consistent demand for his firm’s advisory services, as a growing number of multinational companies

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want to build a stronger presence in Asia while Asian companies try to expand regionally or globally.

In order to scale up its operation, Leading Organisations announced earlier this month that it has signed a cooperation agreement with ifp Management diagnostik, one of the leading providers of assessment and management development tools based in Cologne, Germany. The German firm has more than 20 consultants and conducts about 500 management assessments a year.

tool called the ACTModel™ (ACT stands for Alignment, Clarity and Trust).

The tool allows companies to identify its leadership team’s strengths and weaknesses, and then devise ways to improve its performance. New explains that the assessment involves asking each team member to complete an online survey of 124 questions examining how the team interacts, makes decisions, performs to achieve results, and learns from its experiences; the team’s performance will

and a great way to understand what are the areas that they need to develop and improve.”

Under the agreement, the two firms will market and sell each other’s products and services in their respective markets, as well as engage each other’s partners and consultants in providing advisory services to clients.

A key product that Leading Organisations has developed in collaboration with Elizabeth George, a management professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, is a management assessment

then be analyzed and compared to the results of other teams in the database compiled by Leading Organisations to yield a benchmark score indicating how effective the team is.

“It’s like an index, and the database is still growing. We have a lot of teams joining or interested in having this kind of report,” he says. “From the perspective of the company or the leader of a team, it is a good objective measure of your team’s performance

“We use it in our consulting work because we find it very useful to be able to run this assessment of the team and play back the responses to the team and say, ‘This is how you guys answered.’ I have found that in many cases, it really surprises people,” he says.

People are often caught off guard by the extent of differences in their views on particular topics. “They have never really appreciated that there is a

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Keeping everyone on the same page New says one of the biggest benefits of this assessment tool is that the team can gain a much better understanding of the views and perceptions of its members, and resolve any emerging issues before embarking on a particular project.

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broad range of opinion, or a complete polarization – half the team is on this side, and half the team is on that side.

They’ve never thought about that.

They maybe made assumptions that everyone saw it this way and didn’t realize that some people saw it differently,” New says.

Management can also use the assessment tool before a merger or an acquisition to gauge the quality of the target firm’s leadership team as part of its due diligence process, he says.

“When companies go to acquire a

company, they often have to perform legal or IT due diligence, but you usually don’t see a due diligence process of management or leadership, and this tool is ideal for that,” New says.

What makes an effective team?

New says management’s ability to build successful teams and improve

their performance has a tremendous impact on the overall effectiveness of a company and, ultimately, its bottom line.

According to him, the hallmarks of an effective team include three important factors: Every team member is aligned with a specific part of a plan, recognizes the importance of clarity to team performance, and they trust each other to put the needs of the team first.

To help a team achieve these goals, his firm has developed another teambuilding tool called TeamACT™. The online software guides team members through a six to nine-step process to collaborate and produce an execution plan for a specific project they are working on – be it launching a new product, or a new campaign for customer services.

In addition to allowing team members to set objectives and priorities, the tool provides the option of allowing senior management to view the plan devised by the team in order to raise transparency and accountability.

“In many organizations, there is a lot of confusion over who is responsible for what and what they are trying to achieve. Different departments in the organization may be duplicating each other’s efforts,” New says. “Too often, I see people jumping into action – there’re huge demands on them; every day, there are hundreds of emails, phone calls, and meetings so that people tend to act very quickly because they are terrified that they are not going to get things done.”

Amid all the hustle-bustle, however, New says consensus building within the team is critical to the success of a project.

“Today, people are under so much pressure to produce results, but you can’t do that just on your own. You depend on other people in a team or organization, so you need to spend the time making a plan.

“The tool is trying to get teams to talk to each other and agree on what is the best way to do something before they go out and do it. That reflection is really powerful in helping people produce better results,” he says.

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TALK-TO-AUTHOR

DADDY’S LOGIC: LIVE A FULL AND COMPLETE LIFE Walmart Asia Corporate Affairs head Anthony Rose is the author of a new book titled “Daddy’s Logic” for people “who want a commonsensical approach to being the CEO of their own lives”. Rose who interviewed more than 100 top business leaders – and ordinary people – for this book shares his “awakening” and the joy in writing this book with biz.hk

biz.hk: What’s your book “Daddy’s Logic” all about?

Who should read this book?

Rose: The idea of the book comes from the life of my father. Upon his passing in 2001, I realized all the advice he gave me over the years was so valuable that I believed it should be shared, especially among young people.

To make the book relevant and easy to understand, I focused to reflect on real life stories of some well-known people and included about 60 interviews with individuals from all over the world who have achieved enormous achievement and acquired success in their lifetime. Their experiences bring to life some simple but essential principles highlighted for a rewarding personal and professional life.

The book, which lists 20 principles as a checklist, provides people with a tool to audit their lives. I have readers as young as 16 or as old as 80. Young people reading this book can often seek useful guidance for their career development. Parents are buying this book for their teenage children as a way to get them

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some sound advice; some are buying it today and will give it to their young kids when they grow older. So far, I am quite pleased with the reviews of the book. biz.hk: How were you inspired by your father to publish a book dedicated to him?

Rose: One day in 2001, as my family in India alerted me about my father’s deteriorating health, I got home and saw my father being wheeled into an ambulance.

He turned to me and said, “Son, you may be a hot shot in the office but you have been a lousy son.” His remarks took me by surprise because I thought I was doing fine in contributing to the family and spending time with them.

So, I took the following six weeks off and spent everyday with my father in the hospital. During those six weeks, he told me a lot about my growing up and the family as well as his dreams and experiences. And as we recounted those years together, what hit me is that over the years whenever I listened to my father’s advice – university, school or my career, I always did better than when I disregarded them.

However, during his stay in the hospital, my father once asked me what my life’s purpose was, and I could not come up with an answer – it is also the reason that I dedicated “finding your purpose in life” in the book’s first chapter. Some time after his passing, I got back to my busy work but I was constantly thinking about what he told and asked me during the time we spent together in the hospital.

Later, when I shared my story in the office, I was reminded that my father’s advice very much made a lot of sense as my colleagues started talking about his concepts and calling them “logic.” At the recommendation of some friends, I finally started writing a book at night, and it took me 123 interviews in three years and an estimated 4,000 hours of work to make it a reality. biz.hk: Would readers have a hard time relating themselves to stories told in the book as everyone has a different story?

Rose: I don’t think readers would find it difficult at all.

As suggested by what the cover says, “Live a life of no limits, no excuses, no regrets,” it calls upon people upfront and questions whether or not they are already doing all the right things to achieve just that.

One of the reasons I chose the 60 people I did for the book was that all of them came from a very humble background and somehow had to work their way up to the top; none of them were born with a silver spoon in their mouth. They had struggled and had faced tremendous hardship in life.

Most importantly, these are real people from every possible background and walks of life whose success did not come inherited from their family; most are

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first-generation entrepreneurs who succeeded by sheer hard and smart work. Through amazing stories, you will find that there is something inspirational for everybody to pick up from the book. biz.hk: Could you give us an example of success in life?

Rose: There is a story in the book about a person whom I see as someone successfully living a much more professional life than many other people, although he works in a job most would see as something less than glamorous. He is a janitor but I call him the happiest janitor in the world.

At the place where I had the privilege of knowing this guy, I’d see him doing his work every morning when I arrived at 7am and still working in the evening when I was the last one to leave the building; yet, I would find him everyday with a smile on his face. He was able to do his job day in and day out and still be happy. Surprisingly, he even knew my name.

I once asked him a question about his job and he told me that everyday on the job he’d focus on one tile at a time in the process of cleaning thousands of them.

It is a story that reminds me of my father who had also come from a very humble background but had had tremendous wisdom; it also tells us that you don’t have to be a CEO to be successful in life. It doesn’t really matter what you do as long as you develop work ethics. biz.hk: What about personal life?

Rose: Having a good personal life is also very important. It is one area where I didn’t listen to my father.

My parents did not oppose to my marriage but cautioned that I needed to get to know the person before making a big commitment. I still remember my father’s words when my marriage did not work out.

When I audited my own life, I saw a gap. I realized since we put so much time and effort into our careers and pursuit of things that we could very often unknowingly neglect our soul and spirit. biz.hk: Then, how do you see the importance of family?

Rose: It is very important to appreciate your family. Of course, family doesn’t necessarily mean your life partner. It means everyone in your family. When I was working in the US, I’d fly back to see my mother five or six times a year. But, when she developed Alzheimer’s in 2007, I decided to come back to Asia largely because I wanted to be closer to my mother. I relocated to Singapore and was able to visit her much more often.

My mother passed away late last year, and I was by her bedside throughout the last few weeks of her life as nothing else would be more important than staying with her at the time. I also recently went back to India to see my family. I now often tell young people how

biz.hk 5 • 2013

Anthony Rose

much of a joy it is to live with your parents and be close to your family. And, I really like how Chinese people often do things together as a family and their strong sense in family value. biz.hk: What prompted you to donate proceeds from the book to Habitat for Humanity?

Rose: It goes back to my father’s question about my life purposes, which I did not know but I now do. One of the things to which I am now committed is that I want to use my communication skills to do further good by sharing inspirational stories. It really takes each one of us to do something in order to make a difference in the world we live in, hence my decision to donate 100 percent of profits from the book to Habitat for Humanity. When people asked me why I spent so much time on a book only to donate the profit, I’d tell them how much joy it really gives you when you are in a position to give. biz.hk: Can you tell us more about your next book project?

Rose: My next book will be about the secret formula of leadership among the world’s most inspiring women. Like “Daddy’s Logic,” it will have inspirational stories of people from different walks of life but it will focus on women who have achieved success to different degrees.

I’d like this upcoming book to be a reference guide that young women around the world will be able to easily pick up and to learn from it. Through the new book, hopefully readers will be able to be better prepared and positioned when they face real challenges in their professional and personal lives.

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2013 Jun

Mark Your Calendar E-commerce is taking over China -

Venue: AmCham Office 1904 Bank of America Tower 12 Harcourt Road, Central

Jun How to make it work for you

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Frank Lavin, CEO and Founder, Export Now In this presentation, Frank Lavin will walk through the challenges and opportunities of China e-commerce so that companies large and small can make this opportunity work.

Frank Lavin is CEO and Founder of Export Now, which helps companies sell on-line in China from their home office, in addition to his role as Chairman of Edelman Asia Pacific, working with companies on regulatory challenges and sensitive government relations issues.

Lavin served as Under Secretary for International Trade at the US Department of Commerce (2005-2007), where he served as lead negotiator for trade with China and India and was a senior policy official responsible for commercial policy, export promotion, and trade negotiations across the globe. He was also US Ambassador to the Republic of Singapore (2001-05), where his duties included helping negotiate the landmark US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.

In the private sector, Lavin served in senior finance and management positions in Hong Kong and Singapore with Bank of America and Citibank. He is co-author of “Export Now” (2011) and was editor of “Rising to the Challenge” (EDM 2010), the official book of the USA Pavilion at the Shanghai 2010 Expo.

New Role and Priorities at the

David Graham, Executive VP, Chief Regulatory Officer and Head of Listing, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited Join us for an informative luncheon presentation with David Graham, who will speak on Hong Kong Exchange’s strategy including the role, priorities and highlights of the key regulatory and listing focuses.

David Graham has over 30 years of experience in legal and financial services. He started his career with Freshfields (now Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer) in the UK in 1982, was promoted to Partner in 1991 and moved to Hong Kong in 1999.

Graham joined Morgan Stanley as General Counsel (Asia ex-Japan) in 2001 and has been working in the financial services sector since then. He has held several senior roles within UBS, both in Asia and in the UK, including Global General Counsel of UBS Investment Bank. Prior to taking up his current role, he was Global Head of Legal and General Counsel of Nomura’s Wholesale Division.

Graham has been a member of a number of committees of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, including serving as a member, and then a Deputy Chairman, of the Hong Kong Takeovers Panel from 2001 to 2012. He is currently a member of the Code Committee of the UK Takeover Panel.

Jun

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Entering the PC+ Era Jack Lee, Corporate VP, Lenovo Group and GM, Hong Kong, Taiwan & Korea Region, Lenovo As the world increasingly embraces an expanding spectrum of computing devices from notebooks to tablets and smart-phones, the industry is making a step into the “PC+ Era.” Topics of the presentation will include: • The Lenovo Story • The Advent of the PC+ Era • “Protect and Attack” – Throwing the sucker punch and guarding from one • Building a Power Brand with the Promise of “For Those Who Do” • Management Ins and Outs – the President’s Philosophy Jack Lee is Corporate Vice President of Lenovo Group and General Manager of Lenovo’s Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea (HTK) region. Prior to his current role, Lee was General Manager of the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region and Chief Operating Officer for Emerging Markets Group (EMG) at Lenovo.

With more than 20 years of experience with global companies, Lee combines insight and expertise gained from leadership roles across a number of diverse industries. He joined Lenovo from Microsoft where he was VP, OEM, Greater China region. Prior to that, he was Managing Director of Ariba for the Greater China region, Managing Director of Asia Procurement Center at Emerson Electric, and VP of Strategic Alliances at iSteelAsia.com.

For information, see website: www.amcham.org.hk

Tel: (852) 2530 6900

Fee(s): Member Fee: HK$250 Non Member Fee: HK$380

Venue: Renaissance Harbour View Hotel Oasis Room (8/F) 1 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Jun Hong Kong Stock Exchange

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Time: 12:00 - 2:00pm (Sandwiches and beverages included)

Fax: (852) 2810 1289

Time: 12:00 - 2:00pm (Lunch included) Fee(s): Member Fee: HK$550 Non Member Fee: HK$650 Corporate Table Fee (10-12pax): HK$6,600

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Email: kalau@amcham.org.hk

THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN HONG KONG FAST FACTS Community AmCham celebrates over 40 years of promoting business and fostering greater trade ties and community service in Hong Kong.

Activities Members can access roughly 400 programs, seminars, and conferences each year featuring top business and government leaders, industry experts and professional facilitators who address timely and relevant business issues.

Members Over 1,800 members (40 different nationalities) from over 800 organizations, including multinational firms, small and medium enterprises, entrepreneurs, and non-profit organizations.

Committees Our members can join and access up to 28 different committees covering industry sectors, professional service sectors, and special segments of the membership.

BENEFITS Business Networking Visiblity and Corporate Exposure Information Advocacy WHY JOIN AMCHAM? "As a non-American, I have joined the AmCham in every country I have been posted because it is consistently the biggest and most active Chamber of Commerce and the strongest, best organized lobbying force in most countries, therefore able to attract a large number of members of very diverse horizons and able to organize a wide variety of events, attracting very often high profile speakers and therefore large attendance."

REQUEST MORE INFORMATION Membership Department: membership@amcham.org.hk / 2530 6900 www.amcham.org.hk