Our educational journey started on April 3, 2009 and lasted until April 12, 2009. Find out about our Hong Kong Story here!
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR PARTNERS IN HONG KONG FOR THEIR GREAT CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SUCCESS OF OUR EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY 2009!
Sunday 12 April, 2009
22.00 Just arrived at the airport - a long trip back home ahead of us! We are leaving full of great impressions, new information, and a strong wish to come back to this bustling city!
Saturday 11 April, 2009
13.00 Taking in Macau beach...RELAX
Friday 10 April, 2009
Good Friday – a holiday in Hongkong, but not for us!
08.15 The coach pick-up kindly arranged for us by Liebherr Hong Kong works perfectly well. 45 mins. Later we arrive in the New Territories.
09.00 Mr. Francis Kwok welcomes us to Liebherr Hongkong. A perfectly organised talk on Liebherr’s strategy and reasons for operating from Hong Kong follows. The proud picture taken of our group in front of a Liebherr crane follows next week! A big thank you to Mr. Kwok, Ganahl, and Brandl for organising this event!
11.00 Neutrik also has a production site in Hongkong. We hear an interesting talk on their manufacturing strategy and reasons for their Hongkong location.
12.00 The coach drives us back downtown. Mr. Menichetti speaks the farewell words to signal the end of the official educational journey program. Most of us are staying for another 2 days of exploring Hong Kong, but some group members depart today.
Thursday 9 April, 2009
08.30 We arrive early at City U to meet Mr. Roth, Consulate General of Switzerland. His extremely interesting talk deals with “The importance of Hong Kong for the diplomatic relations to Asia” and was kindly arranged to be hosted in a location of City University again.
11.00 We spend some time strolling through downtown Hongkong
11:30 We arrive in the heart of the financial district. Tour of Hong Kong Stock Exchange
14.30 Tour of Hong Kong Monetary Authority
16.00 We are free for the rest of the day and have time to explore Hong Kong ourselves – we are beginning to find our way around after 5 days in this city!
Wednesday 8 April, 2009
08.00 A busy day ahead of us. All make it for the 08.00 start!
09.00 We meet Carrie, who kindly arranged the visit at KPMG for us. The world IS small – she event spent a year in Liechtenstein some time ago!
10.00 Members of KPMG audit team talk about Hong Kong as a strategic location for KPMG. We also hear about their graduate recruitment scheme earlier – what a selection process!
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11.30 We arrive Hong Kong Institute of Bankers. Rebecca kindly arranged a talk and discussion on "Special Characteristics of the Hong Kong Financial Market". We did not have a lot of time to spend at HKIB but definitely made the most of it. Thanks everyone at HKIB!
13.30 Unfortunately, our lunchtime appointment was cancelled. Time for a couple of hours in Kowloon.
16.40 This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience: our Bank of China visit – in their impressive tower, an architecture work of art.
17.30 The talk on “Products of a Chinese Bank” was extremely interesting. A great snapshot of what is going on in Chinese economy these days. Thank you to the BoC team!
19.00 Anyone for dinner?
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
After a lazy morning and a 10.00 start from the hotel we were ready for our banking day.
11.00 Visit to HSBC: An Asian bank gone global - Mr. Kevin Herbert, Head of the International Private Wealth Team, introduced us to Private Banking and Wealth Management in Hongkong. A very interesting talk which invited making connections between Liechtenstein and Hongkong.
12.30 We headed for lunch at LGT Hongkong just around the corner and met Mr. Silvan Colani, Deputy CEO.
12.45 Enjoying the generous lunch invitation at the Bankers Club. What a treat! Many thanks to LGT!
13.00 Mr. Colani starts his talk on “Introduction to LGT in Asia and SWOT Analysis for the Operations in the Region”
15.00 A break gives a chance to discuss and compare what Mr. Silvani had introduced us to with the Liechtenstein situation.
17.00 Time for a quick break. Credit Suisse’s early evening appointment won’t start before 17.30 – and it’s in the same building – on 45th floor!
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18.30 Credit Suisse’s talk was very exciting. Mr. Davinder Gill, Member of the
Investment Banking Division, talked about “Advantages of operating from Hong Kong: which business units profit the most?”
20.00 Some of us headed for drinks together with this afternoon's speakers.
Monday April 6, 2009
The first day packed with program events included a trip to the New Territories to visit Chinese University, a meeting with the Austrian Trade Representative in Hong Kong, and a visit to Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The ambitious programme started at 08.00 when we boarded the train towards the Chinese border. Thanks to Aron and to our all surprise we made our way to New Territories in pouring rain to meet Dr. Young and his assistant Annie for a lecture on "Tax arbitrage of multinationals" at Chinese University. Greatly impressed by the huge facilities and the talk, we headed back to Hong Kong/ Kowloon.
As some of our partners lacked space to fit a group of 40 people, Dr. Doug Vogel of City University had kindly offered to make some lecture rooms available to us free of charge. At the first meeting at City University we hosted Mr. Schierer from the Austrian Trade Council who talked on "Trade with China and Hong Kong". The day was rounded off with a visit to the HK Trade Development Council .
Besides these meetings we had good talks with Prof Young and Prof McGuinness (the Dean of Chinese U of HK), with Prof Bin Srinidhi from the HK Polytechnic University.
April 5, 2009
Empirical evidence, Day 2: exploring Hong Kong nightlife does not cure jetlags!Although our Sunday city tour of Hong Kong did not start before 11.30, some of us looked pretty weary when we arrived in the hotel lobby to meet those group members who had made their own way to Hong Kong.
The city tour covered all Hong Kong highlights – traditional quarters, skyscrapers, the harbour, and magnificent views of the city!
We got a first taste of Hong Kong’s reputation as dream destination for shopaholics when we walked through the Hong Kong markets with everything on offer – not sure if the Apple IPod for 20 Euros was a real bargain?
April 4, 2009
29 slightly jetlagged Europeans arrived Hong Kong airport in the evening, collected their bags, and followed our "guide" Aron to the City View Hotel. What a relief – none of the red wine gifts had spoilt our clothes!
April 3, 2009
A group of 29 Master students and alumni departed Zurich Airport at 22.10 on Friday April 3 2009. Some others had already made their way to Hong Kong themselves. The final challenge for us before boarding the plane was not passing security check but to squeeze one of the 20 gift packs for our partners in Hong Kong into our luggage. After checking in some excess baggage and a comforting drink in the airport bar we started our 16 hour flight from Zurich to Dubai and Hong Kong.