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Warm Hospitality
Overlooking a magnificent evening view of the San Francisco bay area, the fifth annual caucus meeting of the National US Hong Kong Business Association (NUSHKBA) was kicked off with a welcome dinner hosted by the Hong Kong Association of Northern California (HKANC) at the Bankers Club on Wednesday, June 27, 2007. Representatives from Hong Kong associations located throughout the U.S.A. were shown warm hospitality by Anna Mok, president of HKANC, board directors Joseph Kwok, Edmond Lok, Ruth Ma, as well as Executive Director Susanna Kwan. Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office Director Doris Cheung, Deputy Director Betty Ho, and Stephen Wong, Regional Director, Americas, Hong Kong Trade Development Council were some of the special guests.
Briefing by Stephen Wong
On the second day of the program, in his capacity as Honorary Board Member of NUSHKBA, Stephen Wong gave a briefing on the latest business environment of Hong Kong especially in relation to the fast growing China market, and the increasingly important role of service sectors such as finance and technology. He also highlighted some of the regional association and NUSHKBA activities jointly operated with HKTDC such as the RFID World reception in Dallas in March 2007, the series of brown bag lunch with featured speakers in New York, and a breakfast program with Hong Kong Commissioner Margaret Fong on her first official visit to Chicago. And by supporting the two business seminars in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Denver, Colorado, held last November, NUSHKBA gained both exposures and publicity in these two new markets.
He further reported that among the nine Hong Kong associations, there were over 2,100 individual members, and soon with the addition of Boston and Houston, the NUSHKBA would be growing into a bigger and stronger supporter of Hong Kong.
As value-added services were important in maintaining membership stability and growth, Stephen Wong encouraged the association representatives to utilize HKTDC services from customized business matching to trade exhibitions as their marketing tools. HKTDC programs and activities were summarized and showcased at two DVDs shown at the caucus meeting, “What’s in it in HK for Overseas Market” and “HKTDC: Delivering a Wide Spectrum of Services.”
NUSHKBA development and sponsorship
Following Stephen Wong’s presentation was a joint report by NUSHKBA Chair Dawn Haghighi and President Gene Hanratty. A thank you message was conveyed to all associations for their work in bringing in sponsorship at all levels to fund the programs and activities of NUSHKBA, especially Raymond Cheng of Hong Kong Association of Southern California (HKASC) for his extraordinary effort in securing HSBC as a Gold Sponsor for another year. With the continuous effort of other associations, more and more major corporations such as JP Morgan/Chase, Morrison & Foerster, Home Depot, and Wells Fargo would be taking interest in NUSHKBA activities as sponsors.
At their reports, individual association representatives not only shared the latest development, success stories, and challenges of their associations but, most importantly, exchanged ideas with their fellow NUSHKBA Member Organizations.
Other agenda items on day two included review of By-laws, Federation matters and promotion of upcoming programs with special focus on the Hong Kong Forum taking place in Hong Kong, October 8-9, 2007.
Hong Kong Forum
To promote the Forum, a pre-event mission was being organized by HKASC. The mission would have a first hand view of the 2008 Olympics sites as well as a business update by the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. All Member Organizations were invited and encouraged to promote the mission in Beijing among their membership as an added-on benefit and incentive for recruiting Forum attendees. Program details and information would be posted at NUSHKBA website, http://www.nushkba.org/events.html.
Other upcoming events
Additionally, NUSHKBA endorsed to support three seminar programs on doing business with Hong Kong and China organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, namely:
- Hong Kong – Foshan: Your Partners for Success in China
A half-day seminar and networking lunch jointly organized with the Foshan Municipal People’s Government to be held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona, on Monday, September 17, 2007, from 9:30am to 1:35pm.
- Hong Kong: Turning China into Opportunity
A breakfast seminar featuring a keynote presentation on Hong Kong advantages as well as experience sharing session with a panel of local business executives taking place in two cities, namely,
- Portland, Oregon, Wednesday, September 19, 2007
- Seattle, Washington, Thursday, September 20, 2007
As the first NUSHKBA nationwide event, a legal service video conference with Hong Kong, held at the last caucus meeting was overwhelmingly well responded, a repeating program was proposed to be anchored in Seattle and possibly joined by Hawaii, San Diego and San Francisco.
New leadership
Benjamin Lee, president of the Hong Kong Association of Washington, was elected to lead the NUSHKBA as president in the next term commencing on January 1, 2008. The incumbent president, Gene Hanratty (Executive Director, Hong Kong Association of Atlanta) would continue to serve on the NUSHKBA Board as chairman. Meanwhile, Benjamin Lee would be titled as President-elect.
The new team of leadership also included Vice Presidents Sharon Hurd (Hong Kong Business Association of Hawaii), Daniel Chen (Hong Kong Association of Northern Texas), Kenneth Wong (Philadelphia Hong Kong Trade Association), Phil Wong (Hong Kong Business Association of the Midwest) and Raymond Cheng (HKASC), as well as Mike Nocera (Hong Kong Association of New York) and Susanna Kwan representing HKANC who would continue to serve on the board as Secretary General and Treasurer respectively.
HKSAR 10th Anniversary celebration
The caucus attendees were invited to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR along with over 300 business executives from the San Francisco bay area at a memorable reception hosted by the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office in San Francisco at Hotel Nikko on Thursday, June 28, 2007.
With great networking opportunities, fantastic face-changing performance by master Wai-shui Kwan from Hong Kong, video presentation on Hong Kong plus a toasting ceremony, the evening was most enjoyable for all of the guests. However, it was the success stories of Hong Kong in the past ten years and how the people of Hong Kong survived from Asian financial crisis, SARS, and avian flu with their extraordinary spirit outlined in Hong Kong Commissioner Margaret Fong’ speech that deeply touched the hearts of friends, fans and supporters of Hong Kong.
On the last day of the caucus program, in her advisory capacity as an Honorary Board Member of NUSHKBA, Commissioner Fong delivered an in-depth briefing on the latest development of Hong Kong to a selected group of HKANC members and the association representatives. The private and exclusive briefing enabled the attendees to interact with the Commissioner through a Q&A session.
Asian Financial Forum
Responding to the attendees’ interest on the implementation of the new QDII (Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors), Stephen Wong introduced the Asian Financial Forum which was being jointly organized by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and Hong Kong Trade Development Council. To be held in Hong Kong on Friday, September 21, 2007, the event would be an unprecedented platform for the most respected members of the global financial and business community to discuss developments and trends in the dynamic Asian financial markets. Additional program details are available online at http://www.asianfinancialforum.com/eng/about/about.htm.
With increasing opportunities in Hong Kong and China’s financial sectors, Stephen Wong encouraged the individual associations to organize missions to attend the Asian Financial Forum and learn more.
Strategic Planning
The open discussion on strategic planning issues for NUSHBKA was one of the most important parts of the program. Dawn Haghighi, Laisin Lee, Mike Nocera, Anna Mok, and Benjamin Lee were volunteered to lead and take part in organizing various committees for reviewing some of the strategies more closely.
To foster a closer working relationship with its counterpart across the border, joint meetings with the Hong Kong – Canada Business Association were suggested at the upcoming Forum in Hong Kong as well as at the 2008 regional caucus meeting to be held in Seattle, Washington.
Chairman’s Circle
Since the first U.S. Regional Caucus Meeting held in Pasadena, California, in 2003, a lot have been accomplished through the extraordinary effort of NUSHKA leaders who volunteered their valuable time, expertise, vision and laid a strong foundation for the organization. In appreciation of their contribution, Raymond Cheung being the first NUSHKBA chairman, and Laisin Lee being the first NUSHKBA president were honored as the first members of the Chairman’s Circle. Members of the Chairman’s Circle would be invited to continue lending their support in advisory capacity.
Acknowledgement
Before the close of the program, appreciation plaques were presented to Wells Fargo and HKANC for hosting the caucus meeting. The NUSHKBA Board also extended its gratitude to the Federation and HKTDC especially Stephen Wong, Tony Wong and Louis Ho for their continued support.
Farewell
The fifth U.S. Regional Caucus Meeting and NUSHKBA annual meeting was concluded with a hefty lunch at the Tommy Troy’s Restaurant hosted by the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office in San Francisco.
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