Dear members,

A very warm welcome to this AGM! It is encouraging to see so many familiar faces in this Annual General Meeting. This is particularly meaningful for our incumbent executive committee members and me after frequent personnel reshuffles in our committee in the past term of 2003/04.

Despite personnel changes in the Ex-co, the Association is pleased to announce that 4 new members have joined us in the term 2003/04. Namely, The Bank of East Asia, Ltd., Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Dun & Bradstreet (HK) Ltd. and Siemens Finance Asia Ltd. As a result, the total number of members of the Association is now standing at 39, an increase of 2 when compared to last year.

The major works of the Association for this term were mainly focused on the following 5 areas:

1. Closer ties with PRC associations

In view of market opportunities and growing participation of our members' business activities in China, the Association has co-organized with the Beijing and Shanghai Leasing Association to hold forums and exhibitions in relations to leasing in China. The 2 leasing forums were held in September 2003 and June 2004, in Beijing and Shanghai respectively. Two delegations of a total of 11 member companies joined the forums and gained a clearer understanding on the regulatory and market environment of the PRC leasing market. Also closer relationship has been established with various government bodies, leasing associations, professionals in China and other regions, which hopefully would bring fruitful results to the members in future. As a result, the Association has been invited to co-organize in another forum on coming 25th-26th September and to give its opinions on law amendments related to leasing in China. These two activities may be important to members who are involved in cross border business. Specifically a sub-committee consisting of 8 members and led by Mr. Percy Lau has been formed in order to lobby for a better environment for the industry.


2. SME Guaranteed Scheme

As some of our members have increased their exposures in Hong Kong SAR Government SME Guaranteed Scheme, the Association strived to maintain regular dialogue with the handling office - Department of Trade and Industry. By relaying the first hand information and inclinations following meeting and conversations with the Department, the Association hoped that its participating members could shorten the time and reduce the tangles necessary for claiming under SGS.


3. Annual Industry Survey

Following the satisfactory result of cooperation with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology RandD Corporation Limited last year, the Association has appointed them again this year to conduct another annual independent survey on the leasing activities in Hong Kong. The survey is completed and we would dispatch the result to you shortly.. By referring to findings we hope that our members can benefit in forming better business plans.


4. Knowledge Sharing

In order to keep our members informed of recent market evolvements of common interests, 2 seminars with external speakers regarding Corporate Governance and Commercial Credit References Agency (CCRA) were conducted in June and November 2003 respectively. On the other hand, the Association has worked closely with credit agencies for enhancing the features of commonly used credit and assets database in the industry, so as to enrich the leasing players as a whole.

5. Website enhancements

Following the growing patronage of the website of our Association www.hkela.org.hk, enhanced functional features of pop-up message, file download and internal message board had been incorporated into the website. Although the website coverage and information may not be satisfactory due to our limited resources, this could form a platform for more communications among our members and with external parties.


Last but not least, may I take this opportunity to thank heartily for the efforts and contributions by the other executive members. Could you please give your big hand to their persistence? They are:

Our Honorary Treasurer, Mr. Percy Lau, Orix Asia Limited,
Our Honorary Secretary, Mr. Joe Tam, Johnson Stokes & Master,
Other Exco Members: Mr. KM Cheung, DBS Bank (HK) Limited
Mr. Arthur Lung, Key Equipment Finance Asia Ltd
Mr. Kenny Yeung, Belgian Bank

Of course, I would not forget the works by the other exco members who have left us: namely, Mr. Robert Ng, Mr. John Leung and Mr. Dennis Lau. I must give our sincere appreciation for their advice and assistance during my works in the Association. I挙e really enjoyed and learnt a lot from all of them.

May I pass my best wishes to the incoming Chairman and exco members?

Thank you!



Prepared by: Ivan Chak
Dated 17 August 2004