Never mind if no one knows for sure where the saying 'Great Scott!' comes from. 'Global Scot' seems more to the point these days. GlobalScot is the name of an international business network of more than 900 top executives in global corporations who are far-flung Scots and 'friends of Scotland'. They recently held their first Asian conference in Hong Kong, where 25 members of this elite diaspora are based. Piped into a gala dinner by a kilted Hong Kong Chinese band, the 90 or so participants were encouraged to use Scotland's historical links with Hong Kong to expand their business with China and the region. It was 'global Scots' William Jardine and James Matheson who set Hong Kong on its rise in world trade in the 19th century. Scotland has always produced people who go out into the world, taking their skills and enabling others to do better, according to Stewart Saunders, who chaired the September 17-19 conference at Cyberport. 'There is something in the Scottish character that likes to do that.' The idea behind GlobalScot, which was launched in 2002, is for its members to help the Scottish economy by offering their time, experience, contacts, knowledge and skills. Often this involves giving a 'leg up' to smaller Scottish companies, some of which are said to receive hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of free advice from GlobalScot members, who also open doors for them. There are an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Scots in Hong Kong, where many Scottish traditions are vigorously upheld. Mr Saunders, former chief operating officer of CLP Power and now a consultant, finds he has more opportunities to wear his kilt living here than he did in Scotland. John Bruce, 'chieftain' of another Scottish organisation, the St Andrew's Society in Hong Kong, says its membership is just under 500 and growing, despite the 1997 handover. 'Scots have a traditional link with Hong Kong that in no way really seems to be diminished,' said Mr Bruce, an operations director with a risk-management company. Although their focus is social, the society's members have been pillars of the expatriate business establishment going back to the society's founding in 1881. They include prominent accountants, engineers and lawyers. Its memorabilia is kept at the Hong Kong Club. St Andrew's Society members are also found at the top of the Jockey Club, the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union - of which Mr Bruce is a director - and local golf clubs. Steps to evolve the society are not without a wee dram of irony. Its first female vice-chieftain recently took office, yet its annual Burns Dinner - commemorating 'The Bard', Robert Burns - remains an all-male affair. Even more ironic, its next Burns night will be held on Valentine's Day because of limited venue availability. Mr Bruce, who will deliver the chieftain's 'address to the haggis' - its traditional recipe includes offal stuffed and boiled in a sheep's stomach - is a vegetarian. The continuing commitment of Scots to Hong Kong has been a relief for Bonny Yuen Pong-koon of Yuen's Tailor in Central. His firm was the last contractor making and adjusting uniforms at Stanley Fort - including the kilt that famously revealed the naked buttocks of a Black Watch soldier during a breezy ceremony at the Cenotaph in 1997. These days, tailor-made kilts with jackets, shirts and a full set of accessories cost about HK$20,000, said Mr Yuen. Even now, tailoring Scottish outfits represents about 20 per cent of his business. Few in Hong Kong are more passionate about Scotland than kilt-wearing Stephen Ho Wing-chiu, another participant in the GlobalScot conference and a life member of the St Andrew's Society. 'It changed my life after I pursued my studies in Scotland,' he said. 'Before that, I was a failure, with two 'Fs' and five 'Gs' in the 1967 HKCEE,' a result he blamed on 'too much sport' and not enough study. After studying in Scotland, Mr Ho passed his O-levels and A-levels and eventually graduated in business studies from the Edinburgh College of Commerce - now Napier University - in 1973. He married his Hong Kong girlfriend in Scotland, sent two sons to boarding school there and gave his two Hong Kong companies Scottish names. He also founded the Napier University Scholarship Trust in Hong Kong to send financially struggling students, such as he once was, to university in Scotland. It was a Scot, Thomas Sutherland, who in 1865 wanted to found a bank on 'sound Scottish principles' - the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. 'If only those principles had been followed by certain banks today,' rues Scottish-born David Eldon, the bank's chairman from 1999 to 2005. Now chairman of Noble Group and the Dubai International Financial Centre, Mr Eldon is among many Scots who call Hong Kong home. He attributes the 'Scots abroad' phenomenon to many factors. They include the Highland clearances after followers of Bonnie Prince Charlie were defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Scotland's 'bleak' weather, and an adventurous spirit that 'landed more than a few Scots in trouble with the law, leading to forced emigration to places like Australia at the time of convict deportation'. Scots were also at the forefront of uniformed services which, overseas, often meant the police. The clan structure in Scotland was another factor, said Mr Eldon. 'Put two Scotsmen in the same city outside their homeland and the first thing they do is form a St Andrew's Society. But once they have formed their bonds, they then tell others to come and join them - sparking an influx of like-minded people. I don't think the English have the same sense of togetherness,' he said. Mr Eldon said Scots had always had a reputation for being careful with their money, though their natural generosity had gone largely unrecognised. Many essential business services, such as banking and accounting, had been staffed with Scots. 'It would have been these sorts of people - accountants, bankers and policeman - who I am sure were in the forefront of early life in Hong Kong.' According to Lena Wilson, chief executive of Scottish Development International, a government promotional agency, adventuring is in the Scottish DNA. 'I've never been anywhere where I haven't met at least one Scot in a very senior position, either in business or in public life,' she said at the GlobalScot event. The first governor of Hong Kong, Sir Henry Pottinger, was of Scottish descent. Governors Murray MacLehose and David Wilson were Scottish-born. At various times, Scots lobbied for the Peak tram, established the ParknShop supermarket chain and played a key role in building Hong Kong's modern infrastructure. Scots in Hong Kong point to similarities between the two places. They have relatively small populations - 5 million in Scotland and 7 million here. Both promote themselves as high-value-added, knowledge-based service economies. Each has its own system of law, education and religion, and a legislature with specified powers - though any such constitutional parallels may be short-lived. 'We have a government now with a stated aim of independence,' said Ms Wilson. 'But what they have said is that regardless of whether there's independence or not, they want to make Scotland the most business-friendly place. 'We have to be reminded that Scotland trades a lot with the rest of the UK. Where Scotland has the strength, I'll elbow everyone else out of the way. But if something isn't right for Scotland, I'd rather it went somewhere else in the UK than not,' she said. Despite the dominance of Scots in Westminster - starting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown - there is mounting dissatisfaction in Scotland with Britain's traditional parties, said Mr Bruce of the St Andrew's Society. 'I believe, personally, that probably in the next 10 to 15 years, Scotland will go it alone if there is another referendum,' he said, envisioning Scotland as a future Commonwealth country in its own right.
