Speeches
"WTO in the New Millennium: Opportunities for the Business Sector" 7 March 2000
Luncheon Speaker: Mr Linus Cheung, Chief Executive, Cable and Wireless, HKT
Introductory Remarks by Mr Joshua Law, Director- General of Trade
It gives me great
pleasure to welcome you all to this luncheon. I hope all of you have enjoyed
this morning's presentations and discussions. Indeed, I myself am most
impressed by our distinguished speakers' insightful and thought-provoking
analyses. I am also delighted to see the lively exchanges among our speakers,
panelists and participants from the floor. I am sure the afternoon session,
which will focus on the sectoral developments in the WTO and China's accession
to the WTO, will be equally enlightening.
The rapid development of information technology and the increasing use
of electronic commerce in the past decades have brought about significant
changes to the global business environment. It is therefore important
to keep ourselves up-to-date on the latest developments and understand
their implications in order to enable us to grasp the opportunities of
the Information Age.
I am pleased to have here, as our luncheon speaker today Mr Linus Cheung,
Chief Executive of the Cable and Wireless HKT, the leading telecommunications
service provider in Hong Kong. I trust Mr Cheung is no stranger to many
of you here. Indeed, Mr Cheung's company has been the focus of media attention
recently (though this is not the theme of his talk today). Mr Cheung has
extensive experience in the transport and communications sectors. He was
the Deputy Managing Director of Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong's major
airline company, before joining the Cable and Wireless HKT as Chief Executive
and Executive Director in 1994. In 1995, he was appointed an Executive
Director of the Board of Cable & Wireless plc. Mr Cheung is now responsible
for the operation of the company in the Greater China region.
Mr Cheung is also very active in public service and is member of a large
number of government broads and committees including the Securities and
Futures Commission Advisory Committee and the Financial Secretary's Services
Promotion Strategy Group.
Today, Mr Cheung will share with us his views [on the impact of technological
advancement on globalisation, in particular how businesses can brave the
challenges in an increasingly globalised and technologically advanced
world economy (to be updated on receipt of further information on Mr Cheung's
speech).] Mr Cheung has kindly agreed to take a few questions from the
floor after his speech
Ladies & Gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Mr Cheung to the podium.
Mr Cheung, please.