Blog

This past week I attended the 12th Hong Kong Forum, the annual flagship event of the Federation of Hong Kong Business Associations Worldwide. Over 400 members from 24 countries attended this year. Every year we hear from a mix of government officials and business executives from Hong Kong and China that provide Federation members with updates on business activity, trends and their view on the outlook for the coming year.

The lineup of speakers this year was incredible. The two top governmental officials for Hong Kong, Chief Executive Donald Tsang and Chief Secretary Stephen Lam, both spoke and took questions. The Chairman for the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, The Co Chairman for Crowe Horwath, the Chairman for Crown Worldwide Holdings, the Founder and CEO of Outblaze Limited, and Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive of Hang Seng Bank were some of the others speakers on the program.

The personal story of Ms. Lind Zhou, Chairman of Neoglory (China) Holdings Group Co., is one that few participants will ever forget. In 1978, she left home to make a living selling embroidery paraphernalia form a sack as she traveled from city to city. She was 17 years old. She was a part of the first wave of Chinese entrepreneurs. Today, her private enterprise is the world’s largest maker of costume jewelry with annual sales in excess of $330,000,000. She has been honored as the “Outstanding female entrepreneur in China” and the “2010 Outstanding Asian private enterprise”. She is also one of the growing number of millionaires in China.