Media

The 8th Annual Conference of The Competitiveness Institute Enter the Dragon: China's Emergence and International Competitiveness

02 Nov 2005

organized by
Hong Kong Institute of Economics and Business Strategy, The University of Hong Kong

China's emergence onto the world stage has created unprecedented opportunities and challenges to business people and policy makers from all over the world. China has become a market, an investment location, a production platform, and a competitor. But what is China's true underlying competitiveness? In which industries will China lead and in which will it lag? What and where are China's major clusters and how strong will they be? What is China's influence on other economies in the region and the world? How will other economies compete with China? How can companies understand China's different regions and benefit from China's regional development? What programs and policies will be necessary to develop competitive clusters in the new environment? How do my nation or regions' own clusters stack up against the world's best? Several of the world's leading experts on clustering and regional development will address these questions and others at the 8th Annual Conference of The Competitiveness Institute, to be organized by the Hong Kong Institute of Economics and Business Strategy of The University of Hong Kong.

Plenary/Keynote Speakers:
- Omar Ayub Khan, Minister of State for Finance, Pakistan
- Fan Gang, Director, National Economics Research Institute, China
- Hu Yanzhao, Vice Mayor of Shanghai
- Xie Pengfei, Deputy Director-General, Government of Guangdong
- Mark Michelson, Associate Director General, Invest Hong Kong
- Willy Lam, Professor of Global Studies, Akita International University
- Toa Charm, Asia Pacific General Manager, Kingdee (China) Software
- W. John Hoffman, President of XRG-Exceptional Resources Group
- Michael J. Enright, Director of Competitiveness Program, HIEBS
- Tao Zhigang, Associate Dean, Faculty of Business and Economics, HKU
- Xiao Geng, Deputy Director, Institute for China and Global Development

Medium: English (with simultaneous interpretations for plenary session on Nov 10 2005)

You are cordially invited to cover the plenary sessions* of the conference, the details are as follow:
Dates: November 9, 10, and 11, 2005
Time: 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon
Venue: Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel 64 Mody Road, Kowloon (Ballroom: Fanling & TaiPo)
*Please accept our apologies that other parts of the conference (e.g. luncheons, breakout sessions, reception and dinner) will not be open to press.

For media enquiries, please contact Ms. Cherry Cheung, External Relations Office, The University of Hong Kong, Tel: 2859-2606.