The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC; Chinese: 香港總商會) was founded in 1861. It is a self-funding, non-profit organization whose mission is to safeguard and represent trade, service and industry in Hong Kong. It is the most international local business organization, the largest and the most influential chamber of commerce in Hong Kong, with about 4,000 members including multi-national corporations, local companies and Mainland companies.
Advocacy is one of the core functions and strengths of the Chamber. Every year it formulates positions on issues relevant to the business sector and communicates regularly with government officials and policy makers in the form of public campaigns, or position statements delivered to government.
The Chamber is the organization which came up with the concept of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between Mainland and Hong Kong. In a report released in January 2000, the Chamber recommended the possibility of a “regional trade agreement” to enhance trade and economic relations between Hong Kong and Mainland China. The idea was taken positively by the then HKSAR Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, and the discussions between the HKSAR and the Central governments began. After the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, Hong Kong’s economy was given a strong shot in the arm to help it get back on its feet with the signing of CEPA, which gave Hong Kong companies access to the enormous China market.
The Chamber is a strong supporter of environmental protection. The Clean Air Charter was introduced in 2005 to encourage Hong Kong and Guangdong companies to reduce air pollution. More than 600 companies have endorsed the Charter. The Chamber has reduced its electricity consumption by 10% through the introduction of a series of energy-saving measures in 2006. All savings were donated to green organizations
Read more about Hong Kong General Chamber Of Commerce: History, CEPA, Certificates of Origin Services, Good Citizen Award, List of Chairperson
Other articles related to "hong kong general chamber of commerce, hong kong":
... Name Tenure Business Affiliation and Notes Sir C K Chow (2012–present) Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited Anthony Wu Ting-yuk (2010–2012) Bauhinia Foundation Hospital Authority Andrew Brandler (2 ... S Sharp (1902) Gibb, Livingston Co (Inchape) Sir Thomas Jackson (1901) Hong Kong Shanghai Bank R M Gray (1897-00) Reiss Co A McConachie (1896) Gilman Co (Inchape) A G Wood (1895) Gibb, Livingston Co (Inchape) J.J ...
Famous quotes containing the words chamber of commerce, commerce, chamber and/or general:
“The hotel was once where things coalesced, where you could meet both townspeople and travelers. Not so in a motel. No matter how you build it, the motel remains the haunt of the quick and dirty, where the only locals are Chamber of Commerce boys every fourth Thursday. Who ever heard the returning traveler exclaim over one of the great motels of the world he stayed in? Motels can be big, but never grand.”
—William Least Heat Moon [William Trogdon] (b. 1939)
“I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in study without experience; in the attainment of sciences which can, for the most part, be but remotely useful to mankind. I have purchased knowledge at the expense of all the common comforts of life: I have missed the endearing elegance of female friendship, and the happy commerce of domestic tenderness.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“The hotel was once where things coalesced, where you could meet both townspeople and travelers. Not so in a motel. No matter how you build it, the motel remains the haunt of the quick and dirty, where the only locals are Chamber of Commerce boys every fourth Thursday. Who ever heard the returning traveler exclaim over one of the great motels of the world he stayed in? Motels can be big, but never grand.”
—William Least Heat Moon [William Trogdon] (b. 1939)
“General education is the best preventive of the evils now most dreaded. In the civilized countries of the world, the question is how to distribute most generally and equally the property of the world. As a rule, where education is most general the distribution of property is most general.... As knowledge spreads, wealth spreads. To diffuse knowledge is to diffuse wealth. To give all an equal chance to acquire knowledge is the best and surest way to give all an equal chance to acquire property.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)