In the past six months, the General Committee of the Chamber has discussed and approved three significant statements of policy for Chamber members. These statements are on intellectual property rights protection, on environmental practices, and on competition policy.

The first one, "Protection of Intellectual Property Rights -- Code of Ethics," actually has been endorsed individually by many Chamber members, including all 25 companies of the General Committee. The latter two, "Chamber Environment Statement," and "Chamber Statement on Competition," are calls by the Chamber for our members to adopt certain practices in their business.

While all three statements do not bind our members to certain behaviour and are voluntary in nature, they do point the way to how to be good corporate citizens that have the welfare of Hong Kong in mind while trying to make a profit. Each, whether it is IPR protection, or good environment practices, or avoiding anti-competitive behaviour, is a key in making Hong Kong more competitive and a better place to do business.

We urge our members to take a look at these three policy statements published in this issue (and on the Web site), and when possible, try to adhere to what the guidelines presented.

Another way to become good corporate citizens is to vote in the elections of the Hong Kong SAR. The election of the 60 legislative councillors for Hong Kong will take place on September 10. All eligible SAR voters, and those members of the Chamber who are registered in the Chamber functional constituency, are urged to vote on that day. The Chamber is given the privilege of having one member in the Hong Kong Legislative Council. Let us honour that privilege by voting if you are eligible.