Press Release - March 8, 2007
Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ontario who lack manpower and connection to go to China - a country with an unprecedented economic growth - was given practical guidance to formulate their China strategy at a workshop held Wednesday (March 7) in Hamilton, Ontario.

The workshop, co-organized by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO), the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the Hong Kong-Canada Business Association (HKCBA) and the Flamborough Chamber of Commerce, offered Ontario SMEs a “smart link solution” in charting their Chinese business strategy and “workable” ways and means to sell their products, technology and know-how to China.

Targeting for the SMEs, which accounted for 80% of the companies in Ontario, the seminar introduced services provided by the “Hong Kong Family” to help these companies to gain fast access to China. Despite having good products and technologies, these companies often lack the manpower and connection to go to China. Services provided by the “Hong Kong Family”, which include HKETO, HKTDC and HKCBA, include business intelligence, business matching and trade missions.

Speaking at the workshop, the HKETO Director Mr Bassanio So said: “Hong Kong is a SME heaven. Over 98% of companies in Hong Kong are SMEs. They have knowledge to deal with China and work with other fellow SMEs from all around the world.

“There are over 250,000 Canadian passport holders in Hong Kong. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong is the largest in Asia. They have the necessary expertise to deal with Canadians,” he said.

Today’s seminar is part of the outreach program presented by the “Hong Kong Family” as a outcome of a collaboration HKETO formed with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) last November. The partnership enables members of OCC, Canada’s largest provincial trade organization representing over 57,000 businesses through 160 local chambers of commerce and boards of trade, to better leverage on the vast opportunities in the Asia Pacific region through the Hong Kong Family.

Following a breakfast seminar held in Markham last month, and the workshop held in Hamilton yesterday, other forthcoming workshops being planned as part of the outreach program include one in London on March 14 and one in Oakville in early April.

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For more information, please contact Elison Chu, Senior Information Officer of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office at (416)924-5544 or email [email protected]

Photo shows (from left to right) the HKETO Director Mr Bassanio So; the Ontario Minister of Citizenship & Immigration, Mr Mike Colle; Member of Provincial Parliament Mr Ted McMeekin; the Vice President of the Flamborough Chamber of Commerce, Ms Susan Cetinski; Ontario Minister of Revenue , Mr Michael Chan and HKTDC Director in Canada, Mr Andrew Yiu after the workshop.
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Click here to download a Chinese version of this press release in PDF format.