A key management reshuffle at government-backed entities is imminent and will see Hong Kong Tourism Board chairman Peter Lam Kin-ngok moving to head the city’s trade promotion body and a top businessman at a British trading firm replacing him, the Post has learned.
Lam, 61, who has led the tourism board since 2013, would replace property tycoon Vincent Lo Hong-sui as chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council on June 1, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.
Pang Yiu-kai, 59, deputy chairman of British trading hong Jardine Matheson, would succeed Lam as tourism board chief.
An announcement on the reshuffle is expected on March 1.
Lam’s contract with the board, which promotes tourism, was renewed in 2016, taking his stint there to six years, the limit for government-appointed non-official roles on decision-making bodies.
His move comes at a time when Hong Kong tackles a brewing economic storm arising from the ongoing US-China trade war.
“I hope Peter will bring in more fresh ideas and innovation to help Hong Kong companies expand overseas,” Chinese Manufacturers’ Association president Dennis Ng Wang-pun said.
“The trade war has pestered the business sector and has hurt Hong Kong’s economy.”
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said the city’s gross domestic product grew at less than 1.5 per cent in the fourth quarter last year, the slowest since the first three months of 2016.
President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump were expected to meet soon in Florida to work out a deal to end the trade war, which saw the two countries levy punitive tit-for-tat tariffs on each other last year.
Hong Kong, which serves as a re-export and transshipment port between the US and mainland China, is caught in the middle.
Pang, known as YK, has held a number of public roles including previously chairing the city’s biggest business group, the General Chamber of Commerce. He is currently chairman of the Employers’ Federation of Hong Kong and vice-patron of the Community Chest.
Tourism sector lawmaker Yiu Si-wing said it was natural that Lam would step down after reaching the contractual limit and noted his contribution in bringing in mega events such as e-sports in 2017 and corporate sponsorship.
“Peter’s tourism background complements the Trade Development Council role because Hong Kong needs to seize opportunities from the Belt and Road Initiative and ‘Greater Bay Area’, and trade and tourism are key areas,” he said.
The Belt and Road Initiative is Xi’s strategy to open up international trade while the Greater Bay Area project involves clustering Hong Kong with 10 cities around the Pearl River Delta region into an innovation-based economic zone.
Yiu, who does not know Pang well, said he expected him to use his business network and bring in innovation to help Hong Kong expand further into international tourism markets.
Hong Kong Tourism Association executive director Timothy Chui Ting-pong said the trade body had had sufficient dialogue with Lam over the past six years and called on Pang to do the same – to listen to the views and needs of the industry.
