Happy New Year,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members and friends of SwedCham (the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong) for your continued and outstanding support. I look forward to working with you and having even more personal exchanges this year.
During last year with many unprecedented challenges, SwedCham remained a hub for networking, initiatives and experience sharing for the Swedish business community in Hong Kong. During the Spring the Chamber put an emphasis on webinars, averaging one per week, often in partnership with other Chambers in Hongkong or in the APAC region. The most visited webinar organised by SwedCham Hongkong was on logistic and transportation, with well over 100 participants. We carried out the Business Climate Survey, together with the rest of Team Sweden (the Swedish Consulate General and Business Sweden) based on valuable input from our member companies. SwedChams’ sustainability committee wrote yet another position paper, that was recognised in the South China Morning Post and at the Business Environment Councils conference.
SwedCham hosted well-attended flagship events like the Crayfish party at the Hong Kong Royal Yacht Club, the Annual dinner with an appropriate Roaring Twenties theme at the China Club, Spring and Fall lunches at Embla and a Christmas dinner at Ocean Table. Thank you to everyone who attended and to our sponsors and venue hosts who helped make these events special. Thanks to our partnership with Team Sweden and support from our members, SwedCham also co-organized some larger events last year; Midsummer at PMQ, the Rethink Sustainability Fair at HKCEC as well as Swedish winter at the K11 Art Mall.
We also introduced some new activities and formats:
- Let’s meet - with open-ended discussions on different topics including fashion and sustainability.
- Race to Raise - a virtual charity run - to give our members a safe and fun activity during the restrictions while benefitting people hurt the most by the pandemic. In its wake, we started a running club.
- Working and Doing Business in Hong Kong - A Career Fair, with 14 participating companies, inspirational speakers and over 120 local - and visiting students.
- A new committee - Tech & Innovation for a better tomorrow!
- A sponsorship package. Thank you, JAS, SEB, Electrolux and Port of Gothenburg, for your support!
All this wouldn’t have been possible without my small but very industrious team of Elias Johansson and for part of the year Leonard Lenhoff, Johanna Baek, Joseph Fridner and Karain Chan, at times reinforced by Anna Eling, as well as strong support from the board of directors.
We already have many exciting activities planned for this Spring and I would like to encourage YOU, not only to take part in the events but also to invite your co-workers along. Already next week we are organizing a study visit to Scania and a Lets’ meet Fashion sustainability event. See you there!
Gabriella
