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Joined by over 100 guests to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong House, Mr Steve Barclay, Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) in Sydney, today (November 11, Sydney time) said that the "Hong Kong family" were committed to co-operating, co-ordinating, and collaborating to ensure that the Australian and Kiwi communities could be served as effectively and cost efficiently as possible.
Hong Kong House is home to the Hong Kong family, comprising the offices of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Invest Hong Kong and HKETO.
With a joint vision and mission statement, Mr Barclay said that the Hong Kong family are exploring ways to keep our contacts up to date on the news in Hong Kong and activities held here.
"We have adjusted the frequency of our electronic newsletter Hong Kong Monitor, introduced 'news flashes' to deal with time sensitive topics, and are exploring how best to make use of the new media," he added.
Mr Barclays said that in the process of improving the HKETO website, apart from changing the domain name - to make it consistent with the email addresses, every effort would be made to ensure that the website contains as much interesting, relevant and up to date information as possible.
Mr Barclay said that to make better use of the Hong Kong House premises, alterations had been made to create three function rooms which would be available to Hong Kong-related organisations, and to other "not-for-profits" free of charge. They may also be used for exhibitions, board meetings, seminars, cocktail parties and so on.
Hong Kong House was originally a hotel - the Central Hotel - designed by Sydney architect Ambrose Thornley about 120 years ago. In 1995, the Hong Kong Government opened Hong Kong House, having bought, renovated and restored the building to house all Hong Kong-related Australian offices under the same roof.
Ends/Thursday, November 11, 2010
Issued at HKT 19:21
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