CJAH Blog for the week ending 24th July 2009

The week for me, as I suppose for many of you has been dominated by sport! Obviously for those of us with a Golfing bent the British Open at Turnberry was an absolute must and the reaction of the spectators to Tom Watson’s attempt to wrest the ‘Claret Jug’ trophy from younger competitors at the age of 59 was nail biting stuff. So too was the Second Ashes Cricket Test at Lords, the home of cricket with England beating Australia for the first time in 75 years though again like the golf it certainly had many of us on the edge of our seats and the Australians got ever so close to catching England.  After that appetizer we have an exciting series in prospect.

Well we have been busy here in the Chamber presenting our views on what the Chamber feels should be in the Chief Executive’s Policy Address for 2009/2010.  The submission will shortly be delivered to the government, whilst I can’t go into detail I think that I can tell you that we have focused on how we think that it is very important for government to look at how it can enhance HK's connections with the PRD and the Mainland, in order to optimize the development of our own and the region’s economy. Also for the government to work with all of us to enhance HK's attractiveness as Asia’s leading international/global business centre. We have also commented under the three key issues that have emerged over time from our members, namely: governance; regional competitiveness and HK’s relevance to the mainland in the long term and of course our favourite issue, the living environment and what can be done to improve it. I know that we are very lucky here having a government that does listen to us so I will report back with their reaction.

Talking of government reactions and the environment I have just returned to the office from attending a briefing given by Edward Yau to a select group of business leaders on a Public Consultation into a new set of Air Quality Objectives which they are about to announce later this year after the consultation.  The new objectives are being set with Public Health as a priority; with World Health Organisation Air Quality Guidelines as the benchmark and that there will be a staged approach to implementing the objectives as is allowed under the WHO Guidelines. We are going to be publishing lots more about this in “Britain in Hong Kong”  and hopefully we will be getting Edward to come and talk to members.  The key appeal from me is that you participate in the consultation as your views really do count. The deadline for the survey is the 30th November 2009 and you can access more information by visiting their website: www.epd.gov.hk

Finally let us hope that the Typhoons give us a miss this weekend! I don’t know why it is but they always seem to choose the weekend to disrupt our fun.