5.
By the "promotion of overseas trade" I mean two-way trade.
The London Chamber has in membership the great majority
of British importers. In 1972 it sponsored the setting up
of the British Importers Confederation, which has joined
the British Export Houses Association in making the London
Chamber's headquarters at 69 Cannon Street about as
knowledgeable a centre of international trade as one could
ask for. The Chamber organised 20 inward missions to the
U.K. from all over the world and many seminars and meetings
on every aspect of business with a wide range of countries.
There was a time when the Chamber was almost alone in
seeking to promote two-way trade : but things have changed
and we have now been invited to set up in cooperation with
the Overseas Development Administration an 'Import Opportunities
Office in the Chamber, to help developing countries extend
their markets in the U.K.
and
The London Chamber has of course many foreign members:
indeed I represent one of them, the London subsidiary of
the greatest French Bank, the Banque Nationale de Paris which I am delighted to find so strongly represented in
Hong Kong. I like to think that my French connections make
me more useful to the London Chamber and that my position in
the Chamber makes me more useful to my French employers !
Mr. President, I think that I can say without immodesty that
ours is the most important Mission planned by the London Chamber in what will certainly be another very active year.
And indeed the London Chamber of Commerce & Industry values
very highly its relations with Hong Kong and the Hong Kong
General Chamber. Not only are we linked through the Federation
of Commonwealth Chambers, in which our own Director has played
such a leading part, but also through the close ties that
exist between us
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