FEDERATION OF HONG KONG BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS WORLDWIDE - CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE

Dear Members & Friends,
 
Greetings to all of you! I hope everyone had a smooth first half of 2019.
 
Members may have noticed the recent protests and events taking place in Hong Kong. We would like to assure you that business and travel are operating as usual, and Hong Kong remains a safe city.
 
The city has, in the past, come across multiple challenges and gone through many ups and downs, but always come back strong and intact.  
 
While Hong Kong is experiencing a difficult moment, our city has always been resilient. With our economic fundamentals, well-established legal system and independent judiciary, I have full confidence that Hong Kong will eventually over-come the challenges we are facing now.  I call for your continuous support for Hong Kong and hope you can help to reassure your business contacts and members.
 
Mid-Year Office Holders’ Meeting
 
Back in June, Office Holders attended the Mid-Year Office Holders’ Meeting in Hong Kong. During the three-day programme, we learned about the latest development and business opportunities of the Greater Bay Area.  We also met with CEO and senior management team of Cyberport, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, and a startup Mictronics to learn about Hong Kong’s latest development in innovation, technology, smart city and creative sectors.  All these interesting visits have reaffirmed our belief on the promising economic prospect of Hong Kong, and the enormous collaboration opportunities presented by the region.
 
I am pleased to share with our Federation members some of our meeting photos and powerpoint presentations for your interest reference.  In particular, I would like to share with our young members an information of Cyberport’s various schemes in support of young entrepreneurs even with funding and co-investments opportunities. Members who are interested in these schemes can contact the Federation Secretariat, who can connect you with Cyberport for more details.
 
https://hktdc-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/palau_hktdc_org/EuWl0FVGsjJAtCY3QUA6lvIBmbJCXjpP6zuKgeASfKSIIw?e=8lDdjF
 
Meanwhile, we had a fruitful discussion during the Office Holders’ Meeting in Hong Kong. I would like to share with members several new initiatives that we have concluded:  
 
Enhancing Members’ Registration at Federation Website
 
Our Federation’s network has grown to 45 Hong Kong Business Associations (HKBAs) in 34 countries and regions with over 13,000 individual associates.   In order to facilitate members in building up close contacts with each other, I encourage all HKBAs to remind their members to register on the Federation website (https://www.hkfederation.org.hk/signup).  
 
The Associates Directory (https://www.hkfederation.org.hk/about/member/directory) is available to all registered members to connect with their potential business partners and to access useful market intelligence provided by HKTDC. We could consider setting a working target to easier achieve this objective.  Hopefully all Associations can devise their own particular scheme(s) to encourage members’ registration.  
 
Maximising Member Associates’ Benefits
 
In order to widen our membership benefits’ global coverage, I would like to invite each HKBA to introduce at least two benefits with support from their respective local partners.  All members could then enjoy Federation benefits with their membership card when they travel to different economies. To kick off this exercise, Thai-HK Trade Association has managed to secure benefits from hotels, restaurants and hospital, which our global members can take advantage of. I urge for each HKBA’s help to replicate such exercise in your respective region.
 
Encouraging Young Members’ Participation
 
I wish to thank our HKBAs for your unfailing support in the past years to boost the young membership within your respective HKBAs. The result for some HKBAs is indeed encouraging. Going forward, I would like to invite all association / chapter heads to further contemplate on this initiative, by forming youth chapters within your HKBAs and we should also explore ways to engage young members in your year-round activities.
 
As the next step, I would like to seek your continued support to recruit young members to the upcoming Hong Kong Forum in December.  The Federation Secretariat has prepared an attractive package for “young executives” to join the Forum, and more details will be shared shortly.  
 
The Federation Secretariat will soon contact each HKBA individually to take the above initiatives forward. For any enquiries, please feel free to contact any of the Office Holders or the Secretariat at hkfederation@hktdc.org.  
 
Once again, I thank you all for your strong and unfailing support to Hong Kong.  And I look forward to meeting you in the upcoming Hong Kong Forum soon.

Best regards,

Dennis Chiu
Chairman
Federation of Hong Kong Business Associations Worldwide