Autumn is usually a busy time for the Chamber, with luncheons, training courses, roundtables and trade missions back in full swing after the summer months. Autumn is also the time of year that we prepare for our annual Business Summit. This year, the 8th Annual Hong Kong Business Summit will be held on Dec. 13. But this fall, we are particularly busy with the ongoing 140th Anniversary Distinguished Speakers Series, and with trade missions to Singapore in November and to Yunnan/Guangxi in December. In addition, we are arranging for groups to attend the APEC CEO Summit in Shanghai and the Beijing-Hong Kong Forum in October, which will discuss opportunities related to the Olympics. Moreover, we are running a series of nine WTO workshops.

The study is well appreciated by our members, with over 1,300 copies being sold to date. But to make sure that our members benefit from the new agreements and new information which have developed since then, we decided to do a series of WTO workshop updates. In September, we held two workshops to update members on the banking and the insurance sectors. Other sectors will be discussed in workshops in October, and November. Then next year, we will start a series of workshops which focus more on the technical specifics of regulation changes caused by China's WTO commitments.

These Chamber WTO workshops complement our regular seminars, our meetings with visiting Chinese officials and enterprise managers, and our increasingly popular China WTO Corner (www.chamber.org.hk/wto) to make sure you get the most comprehensive China WTO information possible. As Hong Kong businesses think about the new opportunities and take steps to overcome the challenges, you will find this information useful as you adjust your business.