 back to Think Tech, I'm Jay Fiedel and this is Global Connections and we're going to cover something we covered a few years ago, that is the Hong Kong Business Association, which is operated by Prince Poon and we have Marina right here with us to tell us about it and it's going to be a program. The association is going to have its flagship conference on Oahu and it's going to be at the Hawaii Convention Center that's big time on September 26th and one of the one of the principles of that organization is Terry Sumida of the Carl Smith Ball firm and he's going to help Marina remember everything she needs to say. So as a matter of fact, Jerry's going to go first because he has to leave in the middle. So what is this conference all about, Jerry? What are you covering? Who's coming? Why? Those questions, well first off Jay, it's great to see you again especially in this post pandemic, COVID pandemic era that we're now getting out of. But the conference itself and Marina is the one who's really the authority on that and can give you all of the details. The conference itself is a resumption of what used to be an annual conference held by the Hong Kong Business Association of Hawaii to focus on the relationship between the state of Hawaii primarily and the US in the background and Hong Kong in particular. I think we all or most of us know that the relationship between Hawaii and Hong Kong has been a very very long standing one. You can take it back to the period of the time when immigration was a motive force for bringing people to Hawaii but in more recent times of course the vibrancy of Hong Kong especially in the pre-handover days as the gateway to China provided an opportunity for many in Hawaii as well as elsewhere who had an interest in China to locate first in Hong Kong and then pave the way to go into mainland China. COVID interrupted all of that as we know as it did many many things. So what this conference is is an effort to resurrect the program that we had once and resume the kind of dialogue and activities and discussions of opportunities that occurred previous to COVID. So that's the immediate genesis of this conference which as I said Marina can explain in much more detail tonight then. Okay but fair is fair we should talk about the changes that have taken place since the last conference because this makes it kind of an uphill experience. Hong Kong is now completely PRC. I wonder if the PRC supports the Hong Kong Business Association of Hawaii and it's of some concern. The umbrella movement resulted in the national security law which is brutal and a lot of important people important journalists have been spirited away to the mainland and either in jail or they're having punitive retraining. A lot of people are leaving to get away from Hong Kong including business people and China is being much more aggressive you know about Taiwan and about the Taiwan Strait. Only yesterday 103 sorties over the Taiwan Strait. It's an unprecedented number and it's an unprecedented provocation. The tension is growing every day with Taiwan and with the U.S. and with other countries in the region. So while there was a representative government a few years ago now it has become in the words of American diplomats a dictatorship beyond the autocracy. How can we feel comfortable you know in dealing with Hong Kong when we know that Hong Kong is really being run you know by China. They're offering you know vouchers for meals and you know that tells you that they're really having trouble getting people to come over there. So you know China is really going kind of rogue these days and it was an article in the Times I think yesterday about how it's doing more espionage on the United States set up a Chinese police station in Brooklyn and we know about the balloons a few months ago. So when you did your program last time I think I was there yet. You know the question is you know should you invest in China in the Belt Road initiative. And but query are they still doing that because India is competing with them. Russia is competing with them. Italy dropped out last week and Italy is a problem because that's the only way to get to Spain and Belt Road was supposed to go to Spain. So that's kind of on the shelf. So if you're talking about an investment you're probably talking about other kinds of investment. So my question to you both but you first Jerry because you're going to leave in a little while is how does the conference address all of this. It is a great concern to any investor or anyone who follows global events in Asia Indo-Pacific. Well Jay that's an absolutely fundamental question and one quite frankly which is very disturbing to all of us. For those of us and I would count yourself among them who have spent a lot of time in Hong Kong way starting from way before handover took place let alone after handover. The Hong Kong of today appears basically not to be the Hong Kong of the past in many ways and those ways are not necessarily advantageous to put it relatively mildly. That's a tough question and there are at least two dimensions to looking at Hong Kong today and by the way I think a lot of us still have a lot of friends both in government as well as in that is the Hong Kong government as well as in the business and other community sectors in Hong Kong that we're in communication with and hear very deeply about in the future of Hong Kong. But the question is there and it's a tough one without question what was to be the basic law and the philosophy underlining has been very significantly undermined in many different areas by China and what the future is going to be with respect to Hong Kong we don't know and it's very difficult to guess but it's not necessarily going to be a good one at least in the short term. Nonetheless having said that although much of the media and much of the commentary as well as the political perspectives of the Congress and the administration about Hong Kong are very negative and focus on the national security law and the geopolitical dimensions between China and the U.S. Nonetheless to a certain extent Hong Kong is still not an integrated part of China in the sense of say Beijing or Shanghai, Guangzhou or other cities in China it is still as an economy I think an independent by and large rule of law jurisdiction putting aside the national security aspects which are very difficult to put aside and there still are opportunities for China as a regional economic and commercial center that could provide and continue to provide opportunities for people from Hawaii and the U.S. mainland and Hong Kong to say that it's going to be like it was in the olden days is completely unrealistic to say that one is dealing with a total dictatorship situation in Hong Kong I think at this point other than perhaps in the national security and political and civil rights aspect may go a little bit too far so we're not asking for compromises or for looking at the other way quite the contrary I think one's got to be very realistic and if you're going to do business in Hong Kong go in with your eyes wide open your due diligence well done and your partners well chosen but the point is that it is still a vibrant economic base within Asia and it is still a gateway into China to a certain respect for those who have that kind of interest it's not necessarily an investment in the same in the sense of foreign direct investment money going into China or into Hong Kong but as a way to conduct business services by products from import products into it still can be a very strong base and there is one other aspect to this which I think is coming to be realized more and more with all of this talk about decoupling and de-risking it is very very difficult at this point and for the foreseeable future for the U.S. and China completely to separate the economies are too intertwined at this point in many many different dimensions so assuming that that's not possible one of the major challenges is to figure out how best the economic as well as political social cultural and psychological dimensions can be managed effectively so that opportunities good opportunities there can be identified and taken advantage in the right way by the people on both sides and the other stuff basically not supported in any way because we certainly do not want to contribute to the support of a regime that is basically not not a democratic and that has imposed some of the national security constraints that Beijing has and the mainland interests to a certain extent in Hong Kong but I would submit that Hong Kong and this is not to be taken lightly or fastily but that Hong Kong remains a separate by and large economic and social and cultural powerhouse within Asia and that provides an opportunity but one that has got to be looked at very very carefully but it's still there and it still may provide linkages between Hawaii and Hong Kong and if the future ever becomes much more benign and much more advantageous to the U.S. and to China then Hong Kong my guess is will continue to play a very very major role in that region so it's a long answer Jay but it's a tough question you ask and it's a very very profound and fundamental question yeah I appreciate I appreciate your thoughts about that and I I joined with you in hoping that things will improve in the future I don't see that as coming anytime soon but we can we can hope let me but let me ask you to flesh out one thing more before you take off and and that is this I don't think these opportunities are what they might have been the last time we discussed Hong Kong you know vis-à-vis Hawaii you know in the last conference you put on the question is what are those opportunities now they've changed what are they if I'm coming to the you know the the conference if I'm ready to make some sort of investment time energy risk whatnot what are the possibilities for me you know to be quite honest at this point maybe Bahrain Bahrena can be a lot more specific on those items I cannot because I've not looked at a particular trade and and service investment opportunities in Hong Kong for a while quite frankly but what is interesting is that even with the State Department and Department of Commerce looking at Hong Kong they still look upon Hong Kong as a relatively productive place where you can sell products you can export from Hong Kong and other things of that sort shy perhaps of doing foreign direct investment in you know businesses and operations in Hong Kong at this time so there are opportunities primarily in the service sector I am told that are there that for places like Hawaii which and of course we have smaller business enterprises may be more appropriate and may be effective as opposed to you know larger companies from the mainland and Jay with regrets to you and Marina I am going to have to leave so I appreciate the chance to speak with you sorry I took so long in some of my answers but as always your questions are very trenchant and not susceptible to short yes or no answers so thanks again Jay talk to you soon thank you Jerry see you soon so Marina he left the ball with you that's okay I'm glad you know I was able to ask that question and I'm glad he was able to answer it in his way but but query you know who are you trying to attract to this conference because you know the group of people the community of people that you did attract and they were really national if not international last time how are they different who are they and why would they come okay I'm glad you asked yeah I our goal is to attract Hawaii businesses and maybe government sector so we have 1.4 million live in Hawaii so I only need 200 so a very small portion although it's kind of hard to reach out the specific 200 right um so I did have quite a bit of support like uh uh Hawaii um DBAC they are supporting us to send out email to their their target connections and also um Hawaii convention center also because of the Maui fire so we basically uh the last four weeks was very very quiet you know we understand it's a morning period right so now uh we come down to seven days so that's why we have to push a little bit yeah sure and for the United States United States um other area we also this time we also have a couple of the uh delegation came from mainland US and Canada and also we have majority of the speaker this time instead of Hong Kong we have four speakers uh come from Hong Kong and uh US and we have more than four yeah maybe 10 I'm sorry maybe uh seven uh so we have quite a bit uh even uh you you talk about that the China government uh like Los Angeles consulate they also send um two person a council to come down here just to say hello I understand this is a very sensitive time for a lot of people in the US but I will say if you look back 1970 when Nixon um go to went to uh China for visit at that time the mainland China never changed they are the same uh to today right so they are the same policy nothing has been changed but US give them give them a pass at that time try to work with them so now they do have a conflict uh you know as everybody can see but I think those conflicts come with time we can solve it but this is not for me to say it we are only a business organization so we wanted to pass it to the policy maker so we cannot change that part we can only do our part to promote Hong Kong and greater Bay area which is the southern city 11 city of China combined 86 million uh population so they are very very strong in economic so this is the only uh thing that we try to promote of course the whole forum is a full day not only just promoting the other side we like to be the bridge so we are also promoting Hawaii tourism and realistic so you can tell in the afternoon session we have the tourism board the Hawaii legislature in tourism chair also come down to speak and also my boss Steve some barrel uh gonna gonna speak to the audience how he do the foreign direct investment but of course his investment uh is from majority is from Japan uh just recently deal that he made the three 330 million deal in uh Maui for a hotel deal actually the seller is from Hong Kong is a Mr. Shaw company I mean people know Mr. Shaw in Hong Kong so we do have a big tie with Hong Kong is that run run uh what's the Mr. Shaw's first name uh run run show hmm I thought so yeah okay I think it's interesting that um you know that people in Hong Kong would want to invest in Hawaii and it's compelling to invest in Maui right now and and good for him and good for us for getting that big investment and good for Steve Sembrero um but and you yes but but you know really the question is whether anybody from Hawaii would invest in you know in Hong Kong right now and I there are certain risks for example um if you open your mouth too much you'll you'll wind up getting retrained somewhere in western China um and that's not a good idea so you know the the the openness that that existed you know 20 years ago uh in China before she um was really was really enjoyable I mean everybody thought that we could do the kind of business you're talking about and we could establish sort of a business diplomacy with China where win win win win win um but you know it's not the same anymore and if you go there under the national security law um and you say something um you're going to be in trouble um I mean even Hong Kong residents who are elsewhere outside of Hong Kong if they say something they're going to be in trouble uh and of course as I mentioned you know have this espionage thing going on it's not not healthy not good and and finally you know you have the whole thing with Ukraine where China is undermining our policy in Ukraine so bottom line is um you know that what are the risks I mean in reality if you were to advise an American or Hawaiian investor business person uh about doing business with Hong Kong in Hong Kong which is essentially in China now what what would you tell them to be careful about um I think common sense you don't go on the street and against the government right so you don't do that so uh I guess is uh we are Hawaii is a small and medium size of company and a lot of professional and we have a lot that we can call uh coordinate together for example uh not only the business owner itself or a professional they can go to Hong Kong to become part of you know they can open a office uh the small office is called you know so it's very good incentive right now for small business owner or even though professional and and and and Hong Kong all the time is international city right now is still international city as long as I my own personal belief as long you don't touch of the political politic side you don't you know take take sides you just do your do your work do your business I don't see any problem at all uh I guess is we are trying to disform we're trying to solve people problem on the perception so I think a lot of people have the perception thinking that Hong Kong right now 180 percent change yeah they they add a security law but other than that the the rest of the thing is the same so um unless you're doing security business like the the IT the sensitive one you know that that I I will say that maybe now is not the time to do this type of business there but otherwise and for example tourism we can cooperate with tourism with Hong Kong we can cooperate with other cities southern city as well and also retail wholesale I I don't see why not I mean I I really don't and professionals especially um a lot of professional like um lawyer architect accountant those can be work in Hong Kong you know there's a lot of things going on actually yeah you know I mentioned you know when I formed my question to Jerry that and I've seen this before is that Hong Kong government of Hong Kong has dedicated a lot of money Hong Kong dollars a hundred million Hong Kong dollars to dining vouchers for the quote night economy and quote again I'm going to bring it back what that what that tells you though is that they're worried about that that people tourists are not going there I'm not sure if tourists are coming here certainly the Hawaii tourists must already would like to see them come here there was a time we had you know before COVID we had expectations and aspirations to have a veritable flood of Chinese tourists but lots of things have intervened mostly mostly the the you know the brutality of the government but a lot lots of things have intervened and and they I don't think they've come here so much so it would be a good idea to you know incentivize them coming here and obviously they're trying to incentivize us to go there and remember you know they had a bad time with COVID their economy is a little rocky right now maybe very rocky right now and they're trying to recover from that so they have every reason in the world to encourage you know trade between Hawaii and other places to come to Hong Kong but query you're getting help from HTA you're getting help from Hong Kong as well are they are they encouraging you incentivizing you right uh so uh fortunate this time we have Hong Kong Tourism Board uh sponsor us as uh for this forum so you will say oh they might must be in trouble everybody in trouble be honest Jay yeah so not only just Hong Kong so because of the COVID uh so I think this is their strategy they wanted to tell the world Hong Kong is still open it's so open for business too so that's why you see my screen the screen the duck the duck in a Victoria harbour that is kind of cute and and also with the center Hong Kong that's why I wanted to have it um also also our forum uh we will hang hang out the little duck to our participant so lastly I wanted to say uh from the beginning I wanted to invite the Hong Kong Tourism Board come down to Hawaii for this forum so but because of they have there in uh you know the reason internal reason so they cannot come uh they can you know everybody just started the back to uh normal business sometimes it is the labor manpower they may not be there so anyway uh but they they sponsor us they really wanted to engage with the Hawaiian audience and and I would say we are just a connector we are bridging the gap so hopefully next time that we can invite them to really talk to Hawaii uh other other tourism Hawaii tourism board and other legislature so but I will say I am optimistic yeah everyone okay well I really like the idea you and Steve sombrero and that hotel whatnot but it strikes me that you know in hard times in hard when I want to call it um governmental times uh in China Chinese from all parts of China want to want to move their money out of China they want to invest elsewhere I mean a good example would be Vancouver where there are an enormous number of Chinese investors who have you know contributed to the development of that city over some years so here we are here we are with stress and strain of the economic problems political problems of the possibility of contention with the United States and and of course with Taiwan that never that never goes away I think um so when you see these guys who come here from Hong Kong um to talk to you about improving trade and investment between Hong Kong and Hawaii um you want to really mention that that whole affair with the hotel in Maui because um you know uh we are thinking we should all be thinking about what we could do to rebuild Maui and if Chinese money uh that would like to you know leave China and come invest in the United States it is available um that would be a real blessing for Maui don't you think yes I was thinking so I I guess it's everything possible so if you only focus on the negative you got is a negative result if you think uh focus on the positive end up you will get the positive result that's my philosophy so I hope that everyone will come to the forum just to uh be open-minded to listen to those from Hong Kong or those from the US mainland to talk about what is the um complexity and opportunities this is our theme okay let me ask you one last question okay you know I I'm pretty candid in my expression my views on on how Xi Jinping is doing and uh I wonder if I could go or whether I should be afraid you're talking about go to Hong Kong yes no you shouldn't be afraid unless you're in the unless you're in the in the blacklist in from Hong Kong government I doubt it no you shouldn't be afraid just be a normal person uh you know be come and send you know so you don't you don't go on the property um to protest right so when you visit Hong Kong you won't do that okay all right so what message you want to leave to people about the changing world the changes in China and Hong Kong the changes in Hawaii and how that can all come together we we just wanted to provide um the information the correct information not the fake information to the people of Hawaii or to the audience our audience to hope to put it there hopefully they will uh digest it to make the decision themselves okay Marina I have a great conference I wish you well on that thank you very much for trying to connect us all make one world for us will you yes okay thank you just get our website you wanted to to have uh you don't mind that I talked our website yeah go ahead okay our website is hkbah.us okay we'll put that on the screen thank you very much Marina Marina Poon of the Hong Kong Business Association of Hawaii uh known to his friends as Hikpa thank you so much thank you so much