Written by Klaus Koehler
Founder and Chairman of Klako Group
For full article see below or click here
Monthly Archives: November 2011
Edmonton Ring Road opens next to Walton invested land
Quick note from Walton that will be of interest to Edmontonians in general and investees (like me) in particular. Get the story here.
The north section of Anthony Henday Drive opened to the delight of the driving public in Edmonton.
Some stats:
- $1.4 billion project.
- 30,000 drivers daily
- 21 km
- 29 bridges
- 8 interchanges
- 5 flyovers
- 2 railway crossings.
Hospitality: Rhombus Tackles Europe with the Addition of Hotel Verta by Rhombus in London to our Portfolio
Rhombus International Hotels Group is pleased to announce our newest venture; the rebranding of Hotel Verta by Rhombus, a five-star boutique hotel located in London, England to being part of the Rhombus family.
On 9 December 2011, Rhombus International Hotels Group will take over operations of Hotel Verta by Rhombus, London’s ‘Hidden Gem’, centrally located adjacent to the London Heliport, south of the River Thames near Chelsea and Sloane Square. With 70 luxurious guestrooms and suites, Hotel Verta by Rhombus features a restaurant with panoramic views of the River Thames, a bar on the mezzanine level, seven Riverside Meeting Rooms and chic spa facilities including treatment rooms, hydro pool, sauna and steam room.
Please see the full release below:
CSR: Manulife brings winter warmth to Hong Kong’s elderly
Hong Kong — With the winter weather coming, Manulife distributed 750 comfy quilts to the elderly in Hong Kong, who are most at risk from a drop in temperature. The company donated 750 quilts as this year marks the 75th anniversary of its pensions business in Hong Kong.
Photo 1 caption: Luzia Hung, Vice President of Employee Benefits, Manulife (International) Limited (first from left) and pensions-promotion ambassador Helena Law Lan (third from right) hand out comfy quilts to the elderly.
Photo 2 caption: There are more than 300 Manulife agent and staff volunteers supporting the quilt donation event.
On November 26th (last Saturday), more than 300 Manulife agent and staff volunteers and the company’s pensions-promotion ambassador Helena Law Lan handed out quilts to the elderly at their homes and community centres managed by the Hong Kong Christian Services (HKCS) in Kwun Tong and Sham Shui Po as well as by the Christian & Missionary Alliance Social Service (CMASS) in Tsing Yi.
During the inaugural ceremony for the donation, Luzia Hung, Manulife’s Vice President of Employee Benefits, said: “We are delighted to see so many Manulifers supporting this event on a weekend morning. Quilts provide warmth and protection in cold weather and donating them to the elderly is a practical way of showing how much we care about the retired generation here. As a leading company in the Hong Kong pensions business, we have always worked to raise awareness of the need for early retirement planning and stress the importance of adequate preparation. The provision of quilts for the elderly is symbolic of the way Manulife equips its customers with products and services to suit their needs and help them prepare for a worry-free retirement.” Manulife is the second-largest MPF service-provider in Hong Kong.* Its comprehensive MPF investment platform, backed by the company’s financial strength and the personalized services provided by its team of professional intermediaries, have made Manulife a trusted retirement partner in the territory.
The company has received the Sing Tao Excellent Services Brand Award in the MPF category for the last two years. “We are delighted to see that our continuous efforts to enhance our MPF business are being recognized both by our customers and the industry as a whole,” added Hung. Manulife was recently honoured with the Silver Award in the 2011 HKMA Quality Award in recognition of its outstanding achievements and lasting commitment to the process of quality management, distinguishing it from other MPF service providers in the market.
Ambassador Helena Law Lan, the popular local actress who also celebrates her 75th birthday this year, commented: “We wanted to bring the needs of our senior citizens to the attention of the local community and this was an ideal way to do it. It warms my heart as much as the blankets will warm the body of the aged to see the caring spirit of our Manulife volunteers in action. They are truly dedicated to this cause — and I am proud to be a part of it.”
Ivy Chan, Principal Coordinator of HKCS, expressed her gratitude to the Manulife volunteers at the inaugural ceremony, saying: “We are grateful for Manulife’s donation and are indeed honoured to help celebrate the 75thanniversary of Manulife’s pension business in Hong Kong. We know from long past experience that Manulife is committed to the people here.” Hosanna Po Man Chi, Service Coordinator (Elderly Division) of CMASS also commented: “We are pleased to see such a loving and caring gesture to the senior citizens in Hong Kong by Manulife volunteers. We wholeheartedly support Manulife’s endeavour in promoting early retirement planning, as a comfortable retirement needs preparation well in advance, especially when we are faced with today’s aging population issue.”HKCS has been working towards a humane and just society since 1952. It provides the needy with suitable, professional and reliable quality services and cares for the disadvantaged and the neglected. Genuinely, it helps the vulnerable, advocates for justice and ignites people’s hope. For more information, please click on: www.hkcs.org.
CMASS is a subsidiary of the long-established Christian and Missionary Alliance Church Union of Hong Kong. Set up in 1990, it serves the community by providing child care and specialized services for children, young people and the elderly. For more information, please click on: www.cmasshk.org.
WWF welcomes move by Peninsula hotel chain away from shark fin
“WWF-Hong Kong congratulates Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited (HSH) on their groundbreaking decision to stop serving shark fin at all their hotel properties as of 1 January, 2012.
WWF hopes that this declaration will mark the turning of the tide for sharks around the globe. “We are thrilled with the leadership shown by HSH in saying no to shark fins,” says Silvy Pun, Programme Officer, Shark at WWF-Hong Kong. “To give sharks and our oceans a fighting chance, we need more hotels and Chinese restaurants to take action like this, which will result in greatly reduced demand for shark fin from Hong Kong.”
Since May in 2010, WWF-Hong Kong has been actively promoting our “Alternative Shark-free Menu Programme” to hotels and restaurants across the city. This programme was a major step in encouraging local caterers to provide shark-free banquet options in addition to their usual menus. The number of participating companies has surged eight-fold in a single year. As of now, 97 hotels and Chinese restaurants are offering their own unique, shark-free banquet options. This growing support from the catering sector implies that the market trend is changing and consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious.
One major reason for this is that sharks tend to be long-lived and relatively slow to reproduce, making them particularly vulnerable to overfishing. The lack of effective catch limits and the unsustainable fishing of sharks in general is another. Together these factors have created a critical threat to the survival of many shark species.”
For more information of our No Shark Fin programme, please click the following link: http://wwf.org.hk/shark
The full list of the Alternative Shark-free Menu Programme participants can be found here: http://wwf.org.hk/en/whatwedo/footprint/seafood/sharkfin_initiative/sharkfree/Sustainability: WWF-Hong Kong Sustainable Seafood Week at SoHo, 26 Nov – 4 Dec 2011
WWF-Hong Kong is collaborating with nine restaurants in SoHo, Central, to organize the Sustainable Seafood Week, from 26 Nov – 4 Dec 2011. During the period, participating restaurants will feature a range of sustainable seafood menus, such as Thai, Japanese, Mexican, Italian and British style.
The kick-off ceremony and the free-tasting session of the event will be held on 26 Nov from 1500 – 1700 at Coast Bistro and Bar (location map is in the event leaflet).
For more information, please visit the official event website:
The event leaflet, which shows locations of all participating restaurants, can be downloaded from here:
http://assets.wwfhk.panda.org/downloads/wwf_leaflet_seafood_week.pdf
The leaflet is also available in all participating restaurants.
Support sustainable seafood, be a change-maker today! Every bite you take will make a difference.
CW Cheung
Head of Footprint Program
WWF-Hong Kong
RIM Builds on Success in Indonesia with New Product Launch
RIM’s dominance of the world’s 4th largest country (by population) continues!
From the recent launch in Jakarta:
“The subscribers of “BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS),” a service provisioned through a mobile phone service provider, has multiplied by a factor of 10 in the last two years, while around 85 percent of Blackberry users in Indonesia have activated BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service.
On the sidelines of the event, RIM’s regional managing director for Asia Pacific, Gregory Wade, said Reseach firm IDC estimated that by the end of this year, Blackberry’s market share in Indonesia would be 42 percent.
Jim Balsillie on stage at the launch:
According to IDC data, the annual shipment of BlackBerry products to Indonesia would be close to 4 million by end of this year, he told the Jakarta Globe.
Get the full story here.
Chamber Governor Elected Mayor
Chamber Governor John Henderson was elected Mayor of Sechelt (BC) yesterday! In a landslide!
John Henderson is a former President of The Chamber and, as far as we know, the first Mayor among his peers!
Congratulations to our only BC resident Governor!
See the coverage from the Coast Reporter here.
“In Sechelt, preliminary results released by the District of Sechelt around 10:30 p.m. saw Henderson elected with 1,503 votes, followed by Inkster with 908 votes, Douglas Smith third with 724 votes and Ed Steeves fourth with 406 votes.
Supporters were lifting glasses, shaking hands and eating [locally produced? ed.] caviar at Buccaneer restaurant in Sechelt after Henderson was unofficially named the new mayor of Sechelt at about 10:30 p.m.
Henderson spent the night at home waiting for the results to come in, but once he felt assured of the win he left his quiet house for the roar of a supportive crowd.
“It feels great,” Henderson said, stepping away from the enthusiastic group that gathered.
“It’s really humbling to see the support that we got. I think there’s such a change in the whole sort of tenor of Sechelt. I think that’s what it really comes down to. It appears that the community has spoken very resoundingly that they want certain things to happen and I am looking forward to helping with the new council to make those things happen.”
One of the things Henderson says he will act upon is the overwhelming support shown for Target Marine Hatcheries’ rezoning application to enable them to harvest sturgeon for caviar on site. The non-binding referendum vote showed 2,687 people in favour of the operation, with 663 opposed.
“The vote doesn’t surprise me. I think that over the campaign there has been a hugely positive mood around Target. I think when people did the homework and went on the tours, when they saw what was going on I think they really understood that Target is going to be such an important contributor to us, to our community,” Henderson said.
“When they finally publish the magazine that shows they have the best caviar in the world, that’s really going to help us to sell Sechelt as the great town that it is.”
Henderson plans to get to work fulfilling his campaign promises once he is sworn in as the new mayor of Sechelt.
“There are the obvious things. We’ve got to get on with approving Target. Certainly the community has given us strong support for that. We’ve got to get going on the sewer treatment plant and we’ve got to get on with bringing Sechelt’s positive can do attitude back,” Henderson said.
“I think this is a big step. I think we’ve got a real strong indication from the community that they want to see decisions made, they want to see action and so we’ll get on with it.””
Wine: 8th Estate Wine – Champions!
Air Canada’s En Route features member Lysanne Tusar’s business in Hong Kong.
In November’s EnRoute magazine on Air Canada: “Our Woman in Hong Kong”
http://enroute.aircanada.com/en/articles/our-woman-in-hong-kong
Silver medal from Shanghai International Wine Challenge for our Viognier:
http://www.esiwc.com/awardslist2011.shtml
Just released: Louis Vuitton City Guide for HK. 8th Estate is listed under the “good things” about HK
http://www.louisvuitton.com/front/#/eng_US/search/city%20guide
Bronze medal from Cathay Pacific Wine Challenge for our Shiraz – the youngest Shiraz in the show!
http://www.asiasbestwinesandspirits.com/press-news/128
Dining Etiquette Course for Chamber Members!
Dear CanCham Members and Friends,
As most of you know, I am offering a specially priced dining etiquette workshop on Monday, November 28th. Please join us for some exceptional French cuisine, in a fine dining atmosphere, and of course plenty of tips, tricks, and practice for you to make the best impression at future dining experiences.
Please email kristine@hongkongetiquette.com to sign up.
Hope to see you Monday, November 28th!
Kristine Stewart
ExchangeExpress Live 