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Background
MR PAUL CHENG
Mr Cheng is the Chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and of Inchcape Pacific. He is 57, was educated in the US, and holds American nationality. He is a member of the Governor's Business Council, and the Chairman of the UK-Hong Kong Scholarships Committee. He challenged Mr McGregor in the Functional Constituency elections in 1991, losing by a narrow margin.
Mr Cheng saw the Minister for Trade during the latter's recent visit to Hong Kong. They discussed mainly commercial matters, and Mr Cheng said he was keen to help British companies take advantage of opportunities in China and Hong Kong. He will chair an Inchcape/DTI seminar for small to medium size consumer goods companies wishing to penetrate the China market, to be held in London on 5 October. Mr Cheng reflected to Mr Needham the Hong Kong's business community's concern over the Governor's proposals on the 1994/95 elections, but in a low key way. He has not been prominent in public criticism of them. He was interested to know the state of play in our relations with China. He visited the US in April to lobby for unconditional renewal of MFN status for China.
The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC)
The HKGCC is Hong Kong's largest business association with a membership of over 3,000 companies. The Chamber's main function is to represent the interests of its members in Hong Kong as well as internationally. It operates a wide range of services, including promotion of industrial investment and trade, processing of overseas trade enquiries, and issue of government-authorised commercial documents, such as certificates of origin. A number of its members sit on various government advisory bodies. The Chamber has undertaken an active role in recent Hong Kong business missions to Peking and Washington in connection with the renewal of China's MFN status.
INCHCAPE PACIFIC
Inchcape Pacific is the regional organisation of Inchcape Plc. It announced on 20 April a 50% increase in pretax profit to HK$956 million for 1992.
In Hong Kong Inchape Pacific is very active in the Group's core businesses of motors (the leading automotive marketing and distribution company in Hong Kong accounting for 40% of all cars sold. Its Toyota and Mazda franchises had sales increases of over 30% in 1992) marketing (Hong Kong's leading consumer goods marketing and distribution company representing over 180 brands) and services.
BACKGROUND
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