About the Event:

China's 5th Plenum (more properly called the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee) was concluded on October 29, 2015. At the plenum’s closing, the CCP Central Committee issued a communiqué on “comprehensively advancing ruling the country according to the law”. While the details of implementation remain scarce, the document presents a general overview of reforms to China’s economic, political and social blueprint over the next five years (2016-2020), from the Fifth Plenum communiqué, namely: 

1. Population: Two children are allowed for all couples
2. Economic: Medium-high economic growth is targeted in next five years
3. Poverty Alleviation: China to improve life standards of rural and impoverished people
4. Education: China will popularize high school education and exempt tuition fees in secondary vocational schools
5. Medical Care: Old-age insurance is to cover full population
6. Environment: Most strict environment rules will be implemented
7. Health: China will deepen reforms of the health service system
8. Employment: Entrepreneurship and social innovation are encouraged
9. Price: Chinese government will intervene less in price formation
10. Anti-Corruption: China will fully enforce anti-graft campaign
 

Gain insights on these issues at this exceptional event. Take the opportunity to learn from and interact with Mr. Bernard Chan, HK's delegate who has just attended the National People’s Congress last week will provide the audience with a sense of what happened in the NPC and share with his vision on these recommendations.

About the Speakers:

Keynote Speaker
Bernard Charnwut Chan
Deputy, National People's Congress of China

Bernard Charnwut Chan is a deputy to the National People’s Congress of China and a non-official member of Hong Kong’s Executive Council (2004-09 and from 2012). He is also a former member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (1998-2008). 

A graduate of Pomona College in California, he is the President of Asia Financial Holdings and Asia Insurance. He is Chairman of the Hong Kong – Thailand Business Council and an advisor to Bangkok Bank (China) Co. Ltd. He sits on the boards of several local and overseas companies in the financial services, utilities and manufacturing sectors. He also joined the governing board of the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund in Hong Kong.

Among his public service activities, he is Chairman of the Committee on Reduction of Salt and Sugar in Food, Chairman of the Steering Committee on Restored Landfill Revitalisation Funding Scheme, Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Revitalisation of Historic Buildings and Chairperson of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service. From 2009-2015, he was Chairman of the Council for Sustainable Development and from 2009-2012, he was Chairman of the Antiquities Advisory Board.

He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 2002, and a Commander (3rd Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand in 2004. In 2006, he was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star by the Hong Kong SAR Government. In 2015, he received honorary degrees from Lingnan University and City University of Hong Kong.

David Frey
Partner, Markets Strategy, KPMG China

David is a Partner for Markets Strategy with KPMG in China. He advises multinational companies on strategic growth and expansion opportunities in China and across Asia Pacific. In addition, he leads KPMG’s US-China Strategic Corridor and has responsibility for the development of KPMG’s cross-border advisory profile among companies and governments in the world’s two largest economies.

David has spent nearly twenty years in industry and consulting roles for clients in China, across Asia Pacific and in the Americas. He appears regularly as a guest commentator in print media and on CNBC and CCTV regarding China’s economic development. David’s views are called upon by both foreign governments and the China government, having served as an expert witness at a US Congressional Commission hearing in Washington on China’s Five Year Plans, chairing a roundtable session at China’s prestigious Party School and hosting numerous sessions with the Development Research Center (DRC) of the State Council regarding the financing of China’s urbanization. Additionally he has been invited to participate in several closed-door sessions with Ambassadors posted in China, and frequently provides background briefings to company Boards meeting in China.

Before beginning his consulting career, David worked at the Development Centre of the OECD in Paris, as an aide to a United States Senator in Washington, and in strategic planning roles with two global telecommunications companies.

David holds a M.A. degree from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in international relations, and graduated with Honors from the University of Kansas, where he was named to Phi Beta Kappa. He has been appointed to the Advisory Council of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, the first Sino-US university joint venture, for which charter negotiations began in the late 1970s. He currently lives in Shanghai with his wife and three children.

About the Moderator:

Pamela Ambler
TV Presenter and Producer, Reuters News Agency

Pamela is a Hong Kong-based TV presenter and producer for Reuters, covering business and financial markets for Asia-Pacific. She's worked with some of the most reputed networks such as CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg in New York, and NBC in San Francisco.

Pamela got her start in news at CNBC in Englewood Cliffs reporting on insider trading court cases and shadowing reporters on the New York Stock Exchange. During her time at Bloomberg as an Associate Producer, she helped break the investigative story on Citigroups' misuse of TARP funds.
Before her journalism career, she worked on the buy side in research and asset management witnessing firsthand the investment process and the impact of financial news on investment decisions.  

She is a graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism and has an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. She speaks fluent Mandarin and anchors in both languages.