CJAH Blog – for the week ending 28th August 2009

We are at the height of the holiday season and so the City is relatively quiet but with the slackening of pressure comes the opportunity for a bit of introspection as well.  The things that I have been reflecting on are obviously how the rest of the year will unfold and when we really see some clear evidence to show that there are genuine grounds to say that the global economy is recovering. It seems to me that the equity markets have become detached from the reality that most of us have to live in, there seems to be little sign that unemployment is beginning to either slow or indeed reverse. This is at the heart of whether or not recovery is genuinely underway and I think will be key to the steady growth in demand that I think most think is the likely outcome.  Let us hope that in fact things move more rapidly that seems to be the case.

We are about to enter into the busy season with the China Foreign Trade & Investment Fair in Xiamen 7-10 September which provides an excellent birds eye view of investment opportunities across the whole of China.  We have a long and close tie with this lovely City on China’s Eastern seaboard.  Almost running at the same time will be the 2nd China Financial Services Conference in Guangzhou on the 9th of September which will be attended by over 1000 delegates and offers an excellent insight into what is being done to develop and open the financial services to international professionals.  If this weren’t enough we also have the Hong Kong Eco Expo in Hong Kong 28-31 October at the World Trade Centre which will have a very active British and EU participation. So there is a lot going on and I hope that I will see some of you at these events anyhow keep a close eye on our programme page on the web site.

Finally my thoughts have wandered to the forthcoming Chief Executive of Hong Kong’s annual policy address.  We have already put our submission in and you can read in full on the web site. The key message that we hope will be addressed will of course be our wish for a long term strategy or vision for Hong Kong with the competition that gets stronger each year from mainland cities we really do need this.  We also need to demonstrate clearly the ‘Added Value’ that Hong Kong represents to the mainland and the very real advantages that its special situation offers.  Well back to my reflections and thoughts.

27 August 2009