We have had a flurry of confirmations from additional speakers. I already mentioned that Legislative Councillor and former journalist Emily Lau Wai-hing (far left) will be our guest on 24 October, while Jimmy Lai Chee-ying (left), the Chairman of Next Media and the founder of Giordano and Apple Daily, will be with us on 28 November.I am now pleased to let you know that Teresa Au, Head of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability for the Asia Pacific Region at HSBC, will join us on 14 November. On that day, we will have two guests! Our other speaker will be, as announced, Dr Olaf Unteroberdoerster, the Resident Representative of the IMF. They will appear separately.
I am also happy to announce that on 31 October we will also have a second guest. Xu Sitao, one of China's leading economists (he was formerly chief economist for ICBC Asia) and Chief Representative in China for the Economist Group, will join us. As you know former Hong Kong secretary of security Regina Ip is scheduled for that day. We will have both speakers one after the other.
While 31 October and 14 November will certainly be jampacked, I think that the additional speakers will provide valuable insights that will help us put Hong Kong's role in the world in proper perspective.
Finally, the more astute will have noticed that last week I had two guests on the schedule but only one - Dr Peiris - showed up. For completeness sake, I should mention that my other guest, Wayne Arnold, the correspondent for the New York Times in Singapore, who was going to provide insight into how Singapore has handled SARS and other public health crises, had a mini-health crisis of his own. He ate some bad uni (sea urchin) sushi at a restaurant the night before and therefore could not come to class. My fault - since I picked the restaurant!
