28 December 2003 was a special day to remember as the Society set another milestone in its relatively young history. The first Chinese program was officially launched on this date in collaboration with the Orchard College of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Over 130 students, guests, teaching staff and friends attended the opening ceremony at the main campus at Xujiahui despite the cold weather. Mr. Albert Wong, Vice President of the Society and Mr. Simon Ho, Secretary of the Society also flew to Shanghai to officiate the official launch of the program.
"Your warm spirit has overcome the chilly wind and we hope all students to excel in their studies!", said Mr. Jiang Yungei, Principal of Orchard College. The intake of students in Shanghai was an overwhelming success as the first class of 75 students was filled within one month, with the second class of similar size due to start in February. Mr. Jiang commented that the response was extremely good and they received numerous enquires everyday since announcing the program in November this year.
"Financial planning is a challenging but rewarding career for many young professionals who want to explore the unlimited potential in the personal finance market. Many professionals in the western world, such as accountants, lawyers, bankers, insurance brokers and securities dealers, have successfully shifted to financial planning to look for further advancement opportunities and economic rewards. Statistics revealed that financial planning is one of the top earning professions in the US. As the PRC market develops, there should be a tremendous demand for well trained financial planning professionals", commented Albert Wong.
Mr. Simon Ho commented that the launch of the HKRFP program in PRC is not all that smooth. Since signing the memorandum of understanding in October 2002, both the Society and Orchard College faced a number of challenges such as the availability of course materials, examination arrangement and other accreditation issues. "We must give credit to the staff of the Orchard College as they have put in extra time and efforts in editing the Chinese course materials. They have done a marvellous job within a very short time frame", said Mr. Ho, who is also Chair of the Examination Committee of the Society.
The HKRFP program was endorsed by the municipal government as one of the "Acute Demand Professional Program ºò¯Ê¤H¤~¶µ¥Ø". This is a strong indication that the government sees financial planning as one of the areas that needs to enhance professional training to meet demand in the future. According to Mr. Steven Wong, ex Vice Chief of Citibank Shanghai, the concept of financial planning was first introduced only a year ago, mainly by foreign banks such as Citibank and HSBC, offering sophisticated personal financial services to high net worth customers. However, domestic banks are catching up very quickly and almost all local banks have opened their personal financial centres in Shanghai during the year. Therefore, the
HKRFP program is very timely and should be well received by both practitioners and market participants.
Other guests at the opening ceremony included Professor Shen Dehe, Vice Principal of the Overseas Education College of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Ms. Xintu Liuja, Assistant General Manager (Personal Financial Services) of China Construction Bank Shanghai, Mr. Chen Mingzhong, Assistant General Manager (Personal Banking) of ICBC Shanghai and Mr. James T.W. Kong, Chairman (Institute of Financial Accountants in Hong Kong).
The launch of the PRC program marked a good start for the Society's development in the motherland. The Society will continue its effort to explore co-operation opportunities and to enhance exchanges between financial planning professionals in Hong Kong and the PRC. The Society has been in discussion with other parties in the PRC and we expect more encouraging news will be forthcoming in the near future.
