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SCMP Reporter

BRITISH companies have been in Hong Kong for more than 130 years but have had their own chamber of commerce for only six years.

  Its voice is small in comparison with that of, say, the American Chamber of Commerce.

  The chamber, which represents 380 British firms in Hong Kong including Hongkong Bank, Hongkong Telecom, Glaxo Hong Kong, GEC, Barclays Bank, Inchcape and Swire, was formed as recently as 1987.

  But its relatively quiet voice could be raised in volume with the appointment of William Courtauld, a Jardine director based in Hong Kong since 1978, as chairman of the chamber's general committee.

  Named as chairman last weekend, Mr Courtauld intends to push ahead with a plan, which he masterminded as head of the chamber's strategy committee, to raise the organisation's profile and learn to lobby the Hong Kong Government and the Special Administrative Region (SAR) government which will replace it.

  The first message he must get across is that the appointment of a Jardine man as chairman is not intended as a red rag to a bull.

  Jardine Matheson and its subsidiaries are not seen as friends of China, especially since company executives have been outspoken in favour of Governor Chris Patten's reform plans, and Chinese officials have taken pains to speak their mind about ''certain opium dealing companies''.

     ''I was not asked to be chairman as a Jardine's delegate but because of my long involvement over a long period of time,'' Mr Courtauld says. ''I have helped to raise money and it was felt I would be able to do something for the chamber.''   Mr Courtauld has been on the chamber's general committee since 1988.

  ''There is no reason to apologise for having a Jardine person in the job. The company is committed to Hong Kong, although we have not been especially successful at getting people to believe that,'' he said.

  Mr Courtauld represents a British tradition. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge and was head-hunted for Jardine International Petroleum Group in Singapore following a career in a string of jobs at blue-chip merchant banks, including Hill Samuel and N M Rothschild.

  But he is well aware of the challenges which face the companies which the chamber represents, and the hundreds of other British companies doing business in Hong Kong and China.

  ''It is important that we have a clear strategy. There are a thousand-odd days until the SAR. Hong Kong has already changed pretty radically and it is going to change even more,'' he said.

  Mr Courtauld added: ''British business is going to be in a different framework. Traditionally, it has been fairly comfortable, and we are now heading for some pretty fresh breezes.''   He hopes the fresh breezes will not be ill winds and takes at face value the intermittent statements by Chinese officials that a level playing field exists and that business and politics are not confused.

  And just as coming from a Jardine Matheson company is nothing for Mr Courtauld to apologise about, neither, he believes, is being British something for other United Kingdom firms to worry about.

  ''You shouldn't apologise for carrying a Union Jack,'' he said.

  He also does not see merit in territory-based British companies stressing their Hong Kong identity rather than their British affiliations. ''I do not think anyone, least of all the Chinese who are used to pigeon-holing people by national flag, is going to get confused over where people or companies come from,'' he warned.

  What they must do, he argues, is prepare for change.

  Operating in a British territory has made it unnecessary for British businesses to conduct much lobbying, Mr Courtauld said, pointing out that most British businessmen used the same clubs as their compatriots who run the territory.

  As a result, the chambers of commerce of most countries have been longer established in Hong Kong than the British chamber.

  ''At the moment we have roughly 400 members out of a possible field of around 1,000. We have got to deliver them relevant value-added services,'' he said.

  That is going to mean a complete revamping of the organisation, extra staff and more demands on the committee members.

  ''We have already appointed a new chief executive and we are giving him a higher profile,'' Mr Courtauld said. The chamber has also created two new staff positions - a head of research and a staffer to handle membership services.

  The number of committees is growing. The first was, of course, membership. Then came programmes, then a magazine, then small businesses.

  The full plan is not yet ready to be made public, but it is intended to allow the chamber to speak with an authoritative voice.

  As an old order passes and a new one takes over, Mr Courtauld is aware of the enormity of his task.

  ''We have a tremendous sense of urgency,'' he said. ''There is a huge imperative for action and we are all motivated by that once-in-a-lifetime feeling. Hong Kong is going towards SAR-dom, China is ending millennia of isolation, and the excitement is electric.''   But British business must get organised for the changes coming: ''We are playing 160 years of catch-up.'' 



Courtauld braces for task of giving British business a bold new voice