Webinars on COVID-19

On 8 April, the Hong Kong Government allocated HKD 80 billion to an Employment Support Scheme (‘ESS’), under which eligible employers who commit to retaining staff shall receive wage subsidies. As a form of partial relief, these measures may not always be sufficient. Additional adjustments, including salary cuts, work-load reductions, and lay-offs, might unfortunately be needed. While facing this unprecedented situation, employers should make sure (i) they apply for and obtain subsidies, when eligible, and (ii) they adopt legal-proof HR arrangements, complying with the HK Employment Ordinance, when necessary.

Nicolas Michaux (Managing Director) and Anne de Roulhac (French Desk Manager) from Fidinam (Hong Kong) Limited joined us on 21 May to explain more about ESS and other relevant HR arrangements to guide our members through these special times.

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Private investor David Baverez shared his vision of the major changes and accelerations ahead in his webinar with the French Chamber on 12 May 2020. With a strong background in finance and advisory, David talked about the crucial importance of digitalisation, what we see as China goes back to work, the implications for globalisation, and what we can expect for the region and Hong Kong.

During the webinar, many topics and predictions were discussed between David, the moderator from the French Chamber, and our fellow participants. While many may be struggling with the on-going crisis at the moment, the webinar provided valuable insights on the economy in Hong Kong and how is it going to be affected by other capital markets across the world in the age of digitalisation and globalisation.

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The coronavirus pandemic has deeply affected patterns of consumer behaviour globally. Moreover, the complexity and duration of the crisis, with many unpredictable variables, make recovery and definition of the ’new normal’ quite difficult to plan.

Manuela Buerki, Director of Strategy & Marketing, Integrated Management Systems (IMS), explained to us in a webinar on 28 April 2020 how brands can leverage changing consumer behaviours and priorities, based on insights from thousands of consumer conversations around the world.

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We took a look at the human resources crisis management on 16 April 2020 on practical advice to deal with the significant HR headaches many business operators are facing during the ongoing crisis.

Speakers from Crédit Agricole CIB:
Eva Tong (Head of Human Resources), Frederik Coyault (Chief Operating Officer Hong Kong & Asia Pacific), Grace Au Yeung, Legal Counsel)

Moderated by:
Céline Vidal, President of the French Chamber’s Entrepreneur and SME Committee & Founder and CEO of Patrimolink

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COVID-19 is an unprecedented global crisis and brands need to reshape strategies to respond and bounce back. It is now necessary for marketing and communications professionals to design 'a roadmap to brand recovery', with phase by phase approaches for brands to build resilience in preparation for the economic revival.

On 7 April 2020, Kiri Sinclair (Founder & CEO, Sinclair) led the webinar with the French Chamber as she takes learnings from how the China market recovers from being the epicentre of the outbreak, and shares plans and actions that can be taken in response to the COVID-19 situation.

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Alicia García Herrero, Chief Economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis, led a webinar with the French Chamber on 19 February 2020 to share her analysis of the situation. The webinar was followed by an interactive Q&A session.

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On 20 May 2020, we welcomed Regine Picard (LF Logistics), Veronique Wehry (GiFi Asia & Ulix Trading), and Steve Saxon (McKinsey & Company) in this webinar to walk our attendees through the journey from the early steps to the outlook for the future months. An industry update was presented and the three expert speakers shared the plans and practices that can be put in place to enable logistics and retail to evolve in adversity while also accelerating new business opportunities after the crisis.

Speakers:
Regine Picard, Senior Vice President – Global Freight Management, LF Logistics
Véronique Wehry, Chief Financial Officer & Human Relation Director, GiFi Asia & Ulix Supply Chain Ltd
Steve Saxon, Partner, McKinsey & Company

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On 6 May 2020, five speakers from CBRE addressed the effects in the real estate market caused by disruptions. A post COVID-19 outlook was shared during the webinar introducing new opportunities in the commercial property market.

Speakers from CBRE Hong Kong:
Marcos Chan (Head of Research, the Greater Bay Area & Hong Kong)
Charles Saudeau (Associate Director, Advisory & Transaction Services - Office)
Lawrence Wan (Senior Director, Advisory & Transaction Services - Retail)
Samuel Lai (Senior Director, Advisory & Transaction Services – Industrial & Logistics Services)
John Davies (Executive Director, Capital Markets)

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Thomas Wong Chun Ming (Senior Team Head of Business Development, Personal Banking and Wealth Management Department) at the Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited introduced to our community in our webinar on 21 April 2020 the bank's various financial support measures for SMEs.

Measures include: mortgage (principal moratorium), loan (special epidemic loan), Anti-Epidemic Fund at ease (for SMEs), protection (extension of grace period and extra coverage), the BOC Bill (payment solution), 100% SFGS (government funding).

Please download the presentation here (members only - please login to view the page).

Julien Mathieu, Co-Founder of AD MediLink and Healthy Matters, and Sakshi Kumar, mental health professional and counsellor at Community Business, explained to us on 9 April 2020 about stress mechanisms and shared best practices to cope in difficult times.

This has become essential as companies and staff adapt to disrupted work schedules, remote working, all while facing employees and stakeholders' concerns in a very uncertain situation.

They also demonstrated the importance of fostering a company culture that promotes well-being at work as part of a strategy for long-term success.

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Business Continuity Management is fundamental to the well-being of a company and its business, safeguarding the maintenance of business functions and the execution of new measures that help employers and employees to respond to crisis quickly in various ways. KPMG joined us in this webinar on 11 March 2020 to discuss organisational business continuity planning, working capital management, recovery strategies, and effective practices corresponding to the economic crisis.

Speakers: Shirley Fu, Partner, SF Lawyers (in association with KPMG Law) - Chris Ball, Director, Advisory, KPMG - Leonie Marshall, Associate Director, People and Change, KPMG

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To help our members better understand COVID-19, we have hosted a webinar on 13 February 2020 with Dr David Owens, Family Doctor and General Practitioner at OT&P Healthcare on the key facts to keep in mind, commonly-encountered inaccuracies, and risk reduction.

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