Asian Financial Forum to probe claims academics listed as advisers without consent
Trade Development Council expresses concern that participants were listed as advisers to Hong Kong think tank without their consent
The Trade Development Council will look into whether its annual Asian Financial Forum was abused by one of its participants.
This follows a South China Morning Post investigation that found the names of at least seven business leaders and academics were borrowed without their consent by a think tank which listed them as advisers.
On Saturday, the Post reported that a brochure published by the China Institute of City Competitiveness last year listed 18 "advisory members", including nine speakers or advisers of the 2010 forum, held in Hong Kong.
But at least six of the forum participants and an American historian said they had no such role.
They included Ken DeWoskin, director of the Deloitte China Research and Insight Centre; Stuart Pearce, former chief executive and director general of the Qatar Financial Centre Authority; and Michael Smith, chief executive of Australian bank ANZ.
A spokeswoman for the Trade Development Council, which has been hosting the forum since 2007, said the council was "concerned about [the doubts over CICC]" and agreed that more attention should be paid to the matter. It was the first the council had heard of it, she said.
She confirmed that CICC chairman Gui Qiangfang took part in the 2010 Asian Financial Forum. "At this stage, we need more information about the case, so we will conduct a review … talk to our staff, and try to understand whether they noticed anything unusual," she said.