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.