CJAH Blog – for the week ending 17th July 2009

Here we are in the midst of the Hong Kong summer with scorching temperatures and high humidity, air conditioners running flat out to make the temperatures livable, which if the scientists are believed is simply stoking up the temperatures even further.  What is the solution one might ask? Can we individually make a difference? Well I think that we can for if you accept the proposition that large numbers of entities and people working together can achieve economies of scale then why not in the reducing the carbon impact that we individually make on our planet.  It was this rationale that led our YNetwork to launch its ‘Switch Swap Save’ campaign.  Ask yourselves how many of you when you step out of the office turn off your ‘PC’s, turn off the lights, and run the air conditioner at a temperature that will not end up with your ‘specs’ or sunglasses steaming up.  Visit the web site that they have set up at www.switchswapandsave.com.hk to see what part you can play in this.  It is high time that the finger pointing stopped and that we all recognized that we all of have a responsibility to play a part in getting carbon emissions under control.

The other thought that has struck me this week is that we don’t give sufficient prominence to the work that our sub committees do in contributing to key debates about issues that have an impact on the business environment here in Hong Kong.  So I thought that I would touch on a couple of current issues that have crossed my ‘radar screen’ this week.  The first of these has been the subject of the Release of Information that might be required in any ‘Double Taxation’ agreements which Hong Kong could in the future negotiate with other developed economies. It is a difficult one this because we know that the Government has been under pressure from the OECD, the G20 and other developed economies such as the EU and USA.  Also over the years we have argued in our ‘Budget Submission’ to the Hong Kong Government that we believe that it should be negotiating more double taxation agreements. So whilst we are supportive of government in putting legislation in place nevertheless we took the view that perhaps the approach in the draft Ordinance went beyond what was required by the OECD 2004 model on the exchange of information.  So we have written to Government on this issue raising our concerns as we think unless we get this right it could have an impact on the attractiveness of Hong Kong to foreign investors..

The other matter is I believe also very interesting is that we were approached to have a look at the draft paper that the National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC) of the Central Government has published on the future development of the Pearl River Delta (PRD).  We will be publishing our detailed comments in due course but it has raised in our minds at least an interesting issue as to whether or not it is appropriate for Hong Kong to lobby Central Government under the ‘One Country Two Systems’ model about the National Development Plan in this case the 12th.  We think that it is because advocacy and lobbying of central governments is a normal part of the development of the national policy process and we consider that strong advocacy from the HKSAR Government in developing specific plans, actions, and policies is essential not only for Hong Kong but also in enhancing the role which it can play in the development of the PRD.

Well that is about it for this week and I hope that your businesses will prosper in the week ahead.