The event will highlight new opportunities and developments in Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area followed by the Chinese New Year celebrations.
Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK), the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (London) and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) are delighted to welcome you to Hong Kong business seminar followed by Chinese New Year celebrations.
Organised by InvestHK, the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, London, HKTDC, as well as supported by the Department of International Trade (DIT) and China Britain Business Council (CBBC), the event would be kicked off with a welcoming remarks by Mr Paul Shand, South West Regional Director for DIT. This will be followed by a keynote speech by Director-General of InvestHK, Mr Stephen Phillips, on the overview of business opportunities in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area, as well as the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s policies and measures in cultivating Hong Kong as the I&T hub.
There will then be a panel discussion by UK companies that are doing businesses in Hong Kong about their first-hand experience and the challenges they may have experienced. Second panel will comprise of supporting organisations, including HKTDC, CBBC, DIT, as well as a professional accounting firm Hawksford Group, which will share and discuss the available facilitating support/measures provided in the UK or in Hong Kong for UK companies, as well as their advice and guidance to UK companies looking to Hong Kong and Asian markets as their next steps. The seminar will be wrapped up by Director-General of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (London), Ms Priscilla To, who will highlight the events in coming months UK companies should not miss when exploring the Asian markets using Hong Kong as the base.
After the business seminar, you are welcome to join a Chinese New Year reception with Lion Dance performance and ample time for networking.
Sign up now to avoid disappointment.
Rundown of the programme is as follows –
1600 – 1605 Opening Remarks by Mr Andrew Davis, Head of Investment Promotion, Invest Hong Kong (London)
1605 – 1615 Welcoming Address by Mr Paul Shand, Head of South West England, Department of International Trade
1615 – 1630 Keynote Speech by Mr Stephen Phillips, Director-General, Invest Hong Kong on business opportunities in Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area, as well as HKSARG’s focuses and policies on I&T and the overall I&T development of Hong Kong
1630 – 1650 Panel Discussion with UK companies doing businesses in Hong Kong and in the region. They will share their first-hand experience, the support they received, any challenges they have experienced
1650 – 1710 Panel Discussion with supporting organisations, including HKTDC, CBBC, DIT, as well as a professional accounting firm Hawksford Group. They will share the available facilitating support/measures that provided in the UK and in Hong Kong for overseas companies doing businesses in Hong Kong, as well as their advice and guidance to UK companies looking to Hong Kong/ Asian markets
1710 – 1715 Closing remarks by Ms Priscilla To, Director General Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office (London)
1730 Kicking off Chinese New Year Celebrations with Welcoming Remarks by Ms Priscilla To, Director-General of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (London)
1740 – 1900 Lion Dance Performance followed by networking reception
Biography of Speakers:
Mr Stephen Phillips
Director-General, Invest Hong Kong
Mr Phillips is the Director-General of Investment Promotion at InvestHK, the Government Department responsible for attracting and facilitating foreign direct investment into Hong Kong.
Mr Phillips has served in senior positions in a number of private and public organisations. He lived and worked in Hong Kong from 1989 to 2004 holding senior investment banking positions with Deutsche and BZW/Barclays Capital before co-founding a Hong Kong-based group of companies providing IT, financial and consultancy services across Asia. In 2004, Mr Phillips joined UK Trade & Investment (now the UK’s Department of International Trade) before becoming the Chief Executive of the China Britain Business Council in 2006, as well as Chairman of the EU China Business Association.
Ms Priscilla To, JP
Director-General, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, London
Ms To has been the Director-General of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, which is the official representative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government in the UK as well as Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, the Russian Federation and Sweden, since October 2015. Prior to this post, she had worked in various Policy Bureaux in Hong Kong taking care of a vast policy portfolio.
Mr Andrew Davis
Head of Investment Promotion, UK Office, Invest Hong Kong
Mr Andrew Davis is Head of Investment Promotion, UK Office for Invest Hong Kong, the government department responsible for attracting and facilitating foreign direct investment into Hong Kong.
Mr Davis has joined Invest Hong Kong in February 2010 initially as Associate Director-General in the Hong Kong Head Office. He led the Tourism & Hospitality, Creative Industries, Consumer Products, Business & Professional Services and Transport & Industrial sector specialist teams. Projects that have recently come from these sectors include GE, Infiniti, Meijer, Constellation Brands, Pace and Harvey Nash. In mid 2015, he relocated to the UK to lead the UK Team.
Mr Paul Shand
South West Regional Director, the Department for International Trade
Mr Shand joined the Department for International just over a year ago as head of the South West region. He is responsible for increasing trade and investment and promoting the South West. He has worked in the UK Civil Service for over 20 years. Prior to joining DIT, Mr Shand worked in several roles promoting and implementing economic, social and environmental policies and programmes across the SW. He has negotiated £billion agreements to unlock economic growth with the region and South East Wales; led the government’s negotiations to establish a combined authority and mayor for the West of England; established EU funded rural and environmental programmes; and was responsible delivering improvements in local authority performance. Before moving to the South West, Mr Shand was private secretary to two ministers and worked on education and youth employment policy.
Panelists –
Mr Ian Hughes, CEO, Consumer Intelligence Limited
Mr Ben Walker, CEO, CEMAR
Ben has 16 years’ experience working within the construction industry and is a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He has managed a variety of construction and maintenance contracts. In 2005 Ben founded the cloud-based CEMAR system, currently administering over £50 billion of the UK’s strategic infrastructure programmes. In 2017 Ben set up the Hong Kong based arm of CEMAR in the form of CEMAR Asia Pacific Limited and has travelled to Hong Kong regularly to build relationships with our potential new customers in the region.
Ben is a member of the NEC4 drafting team. He has lectured extensively on NEC since 2008 as a tutor for Thomas Telford Limited. Since 2012 Ben has worked as an examiner for the ICE Law and Contracts Management Examinations. Ben has a First Class (Hons) degree in civil engineering and is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
Professor Anne Carlisle, Vice-Chancellor, Falmouth University
Anne joined Falmouth University as Vice-Chancellor & Chief Executive in 2009. Since then, the University has gone through a period of major expansion and is one of the fastest growing universities in the UK having secured full university title in 2012.
Falmouth University is a key driver in Cornwall’s economic regeneration and it won the Entrepreneurship Award in the 2017 Guardian Awards for its ground-breaking LAUNCHPAD programme, which Anne founded. This programme takes graduate talent and builds new, high-growth tech companies to market demand in partnership with industry.
Anne received a first class honours degree in Fine Art from the University of Ulster, an MA from University of the Arts London and co-founded CIRCA publications before starting her academic career. Prior to joining Falmouth University, Anne was Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Wales in Newport where she led research and innovation.
Ms Yvonne Tweedle, Director, Jupiter Group
Mr David Marsden, Director – UK, Benelux & Ireland, Hong Kong Trade Development Council
A graduate of the London School of Economics, in Economic History, David spent 10 years in the private sector, in financial services, advertising, and interior design before joining the TDC in January 1986.
As Marketing Officer for the UK & Ireland, Mr Marsden worked under successive Regional Directors, to push HK to the forefront of opinion and public recognition in the boom days of the late 80’s and early 90’s, culminating is a massive PR campaign to reassure the British about the continued vitality of HK as the SAR of China after 1997. Post Handover, he worked on the promotion of the new Hong Kong with the establishment of the HK-UK Business Forum, which now has 850+ members, and in 2001, established the Ireland HK Business Forum, one of youngest members of the 30 association world-wide Federation of HK Business Associations.
Since 2003 Mr Marsden has been responsible for the broad strategy and implementation of the HKTDC’s marketing and promotional campaigns in his market, which he leads from the front by visiting and speaking in up to 25 cities a year in Britain and Ireland. Although his career with the TDC has been mostly London-based, he has worked at the Council’s Paris and Frankfurt offices, as well as in Head Office itself on various secondments.
Mr Danny Curran, Business Development Director, Hawskford Group
Mr Shozey Jafferi, Market Specialist, Department for International Trade – South West Region
Mr Jamie Shaw, China Market Business Adviser, China-Britain Business Council