Posted in: Press Releases

March 7th, 2007

A video conference to help Canadian university students, particularly those with Hong Kong connections, to understand the latest career opportunities in Hong Kong, will be held this Friday (March 9) in Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton.

The annual video conference, now in its fifth year, has grown in popularity among Canadian university students. This year, it is expected that more than 600 university students in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta will participate in an informative and interactive career video conference jointly organized by the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau (CITB) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) in Canada.

With Hong Kong’ economy restructuring itself to move up the value chain, it has created a huge demand for high-skilled, professional and managerial talents to join the city’s workforce. It is against this background that the career video conference is being held to address the demand.

The cross-Pacific event, supported by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, and the Alumni Associations of the University of British Columbia and the Richard Ivey School of Business of the University of Western Ontario in Hong Kong, will be hosted by the Deputy Secretary of CITB, Ms Linda Lai, in Hong Kong and the Director of the HKETO, Mr Bassanio So, in Canada.

“The video conference proves to be a useful tool to connect students in Canada with potential career prospects in Hong Kong and China. The insights and information students get from speakers representing various business sectors in Hong Kong would help them make an informed decision on the path they choose to develop their career,” said Mr So.

“The video conference would enable Hong Kong’s overseas students to have a better understanding of the city’s employment prospects and boost their confidence to return to Hong Kong to pursue their career.

“With the close economic integration and human links between Hong Kong and China, we would like to encourage more foreign-trained talents to ride the wave of economic success in these two places,” Mr So added.

Five guest speakers from Hong Kong’s business and professional services sectors will be participating as panelists. They are: Mr Terry Li representing financial services sector, Mr Cliff Sun representing manufacturing industry, Mr Johnson Kong representing accounting sector, Mr Kyran Sze representing architecture industry; and Ms Connie Leung representing marketing field.

The career video conference will be held simultaneously this Friday at 7:30 pm (Eastern Standard Time) at the HKETO in Toronto, at 4:30 pm (Pacific Standard Time) at the Asia Pacific Hall of the Simon Fraser University in Vancouver; and 5:30 pm (Mountain Standard Time) at the CN Lecture Theatre (City Centre Campus) of Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton.

Participating students, mostly representatives from Hong Kong student associations, are coming from all major universities in the three provinces including University of Toronto, York University, Ryerson University, University of Waterloo, Queen’s University, Wilfred Laurier University, University of Western Ontario, and McMaster University in Ontario; University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria and Langara College in the Greater Vancouver Area; and University of Alberta and Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton.

The video conference will also be webcast “live” by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) on Saturday at 8:30 am (Hong Kong time). Interested students may visit the RTHK website (www.rthk.org.hk) to watch the live webcast.

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For more information, please contact:
Elison Chu, Senior Information Officer of the HKETO at(416)924-5544 or email [email protected]
Catherine Yuen, Principal Consultant (Western Canada), at (604)331-1300 or email: [email protected]

Click here to download a Chinese version of this press release in PDF format.