Background
The third Europe
Forum was held in Brussels to discuss the way forward of the Hong
Kong business associations in Europe. All the fourteen associations
in Europe were represented and a total of 21 participants, including
HKTDC representatives, joined the meeting.
Mr. Fred Lam,
Executive Director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, gave
a brief summary of the latest developments of Hong Kong and reassured
his strong support to all the Hong Kong Business Associations around
the world and the Federation of HK Business Associations Worldwide.
The programme
of the Europe Forum was much enriched by the two concurrent events
that took place in Brussels, namely the 6th plenary session of the
EU/HK and HK/EU Business Co-operation Committees and a seminar on
"The HK advantage: Trading products, ideas and technology in
China". Members attending the Europe Forum were invited to
join both events and they were able to network and mingle with the
EU and HK business leaders and to gather more first-hand information
of Hong Kong. All involved appreciated very much the synergy created
by having the Europe Forum held concurrently with the HK-EU bilateral
committee meeting.
Discussion
All members
participated actively in discussing the following topics which are
of common interest to all associations:
- how to grow membership
- how to generate income
- how to strengthen the secretariat support
- how the Federation can help
It was agreed
that the associations should join forces with the like-minded local
multipliers, such as the local Chamber of Commerce and the local
Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and to explore the possibility of joint
promotion or cross membership, etc.
Leveraging on
HKTDC activities was another key factor in strengthening the associations.
The associations should try to be present at all HKTDC events to
promote the associations to the local business community and they
should invite the delegates of all HKTDC missions to HK to join
the associations as members.
Having a dedicated
staff member to handle the association secretariat work was another
key success factor and this person could work on a part-time basis
but should be someone with close connection to the local SMEs.
To increase
more players to the associations, the membership fees could be reduced
to a more affordable level and the associations could also consider
to expand the number of representatives to be included under the
corporate membership.
Business award
schemes tied in with a formal gala dinner, if well managed, could
be an important source of revenue for the associations.
Most members
were indeed not too well informed of the Hong Kong advantages and
it was suggested to organise some thematic seminars on IPR protection
in HK, how technology/ideas/design can be traded to the mainland
via Hong Kong and how to establish a presence in HK.
Video conferencing
was definitely a solution to the problem of having difficulty to
invite the good speakers from HK to address the associations. Even
if any board members or members would like to know more about the
Federation, the secretariat could organise a video conference to
conduct a briefing session.
The HKTDC was
also revamping the marketing collaterals on Hong Kong and would
be circulated to all associations once they were ready.
The secretariat
reported that membership cards were being renewed to all members
and members' benefits were being reviewed and would keep all members
posted of any new initiative.
All members
agreed that the next meeting would be held in the Nordics.
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