AmCham Hong Kong unveils 10-part seminar series to consider, discuss the SAR's future

The announcement appears in a statement posted earlier this month on the AmCham Hong Kong website, and was also explored in some detail last week by the South China Morning Post, in a story that bore the headline "American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong to hold rare seminar series on ways to help city maintain 'international leadership roles'. 

The 10-part seminar series comes as Hong Kong marks its 25th anniversary since its "handover" by the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China at midnight on July 1, 1997, which formally ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony, and established Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China for the next 50 years. 

The AmCham seminar series is entitled "Onward Hong Kong" and is being jointly presented by AmCham and Meta (formerly Facebook), according to the AmCham Hong Kong website statement. It represents the first in-person event series that the influential business chamber has held since the Covid-19 pandemic hit Hong Kong 2-and-a-half years ago, AmCham chairman Joseph Armas told the SCMP. 

Among those scheduled to take part in the event will be "a mainland Chinese official and a pro-Beijing veteran," the SCMP added. 

Topics scheduled to be discussed over the course of the series, the AmCham Hong Kong statement says, include what the future holds for Hong Kong as an international financial center, and how it is best to develop its next generation of leaders."

AmCham has played a crucial role in advocating for the business community throughout Hong Kong’s history," AmCham chairman Armas adds, in the statement.

"As Hong Kong transitions and continues to evolve, AmCham will continue to facilitate discourse on prevalent issues such as talent, data freedom, complex U.S.-China relations, and other geopolitical factors.

"In particular, with the general pessimism reflected in our 2022 Business Sentiment Survey, we believe it is imperative to address concerns, but also renew optimism with emerging opportunities for this prosperous and dynamic city."

The statement also includes a comment from Meta's managing director for public policy, George Chen – a former and well-known SCMP journalist, who is also on AmCham Hong Kong's board – who noted that Hong Kong was Meta's "home in the Greater China region".

To see the topics to be discussed, by month, and the list of speakers who are currently expected to appear at the ten seminars, click here.

AmCham Hong Kong was founded in 1968, when it was said to have been conceived “to represent the ever-growing range of American business interests in the colony”, as well as to “serve as a forum for the exchange and development of ideas among members of the business community, both in Hong Kong and throughout the Asia-Pacific region.”

Today it's one of the largest American Chambers outside the U.S., in addition to being Hong Kong's largest international chamber, and is also said to be influential in the Asia Pacific region, where it is actively engaged in a range of local and international public policy issues.