CJAH Blog – for the week ending 3 July 2009

The dominant features of the week have of course been the 12th Anniversary of the change of sovereignty and the creation of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China and for me the opportunity to attend the 5th Members Congress of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Guangzhou. Perhaps the latter is better known as CCPIT and the Chamber has long had a close partnership with this important trade and investment organisation.  The former which was dogged by the very high temperatures illustrated only too clearly from both sides of the debate the keen interest of Hong Kong people in the future of their society. Though it has also to be observed that equally there were very large numbers of citizens taking advantage of the break to indulge in a favourite pastime of Hong Kong namely retail therapy and certainly most of the Malls Kowloon side were packed out with shoppers.

With regards to CCPIT and the 5th Members’ Congress which took place in Guangzhou the interesting things that came out of the meeting was the increased involvement of both domestic and foreign business people in the 5th Committee elected at the Congress.  It very much reflects something which I picked up ma number of years ago ands that was that business people in China wanted to have a greater voice in the organisations that represent them. We were also given a very clear briefing on the rebranding of the Guangzhou Council which has at its heart the recognition of the need to create more opportunities for foreign trade and investment both at home in Guangdong Province and globally.  I think that the issue of investing abroad presents interesting opportunities for our members.  What is interesting is that both Guangzhou and Guangdong Province have established a representative offices in the UK and I was advised that they have invested in a Hi Tech Science Park in Cambridge.  Clearly they are interested in the UK and we will be keeping in close touch with them to identify areas where we can work together. This should be easy since I was re elected as a Senior Advisor to CCPIT Guangzhou Council.

The next opportunity to exploit our China links will come at the China Foreign Investment & Trade Fair which will take place at Xiamen over the period 8-11 September 2009.  I shall be attending and if anyone would like to join me please let me know.  This fair offers an unrivalled opportunity to get up to date with what is happening in China-wide trade and investment in very pleasant surroundings.