Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 2006

Economics and Finance 19 family-run businesses are invited to join the club where they can attend talks by and share their experience with academics. The new centre can take advantage of the club to build up its credibility and promote business knowledge. ‘Asian family-run businesses can be a challenge. Many may have reservations about revealing information to outsiders. Therefore we have to gain their trust. We should let them realize that whatever advice we give is backed by solid and relevant research and is therefore neutral, robust and reliable,’ Prof. Fan points out. Besides hiring and conducting research, the centre will also need support to build a database and a library collection. Prof. Fan is confident about the future of the centre. ‘By donating resources to us, our supporters are investing in a visionary centre that is dedicated to producing excellent research, in addition to organizing conferences and workshops. We have already been doing well. The Chinese University and its Economics and Finance Departments have been consistently ranked among Asia’s best institutions by international surveys of research output in economics and finance. Sir James Mirrlees, 1996 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences and CUHK Professor-at- Large, and Prof. Lawrence J. Lau, renowned economist and CUHK Vice-Chancellor are affiliatedwith the Departments of Economics and Finance. Our donors can rest assured that every cent they invest in us will pay off in the foreseeable future.’ The online version of the Economics and Finance brochure is available at www.cuhk. edu.hk/v6/en/cuhk/strategicplan/fivemajor_ ef.html . Policy and Business Advice The economic and financial specialists at the University have long been rendering policy advice to the central government of the PRC, the Mainland Committee of the Taiwanese government, and the Hong Kong government, as well as major corporations and international organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The centre will serve as a solid platform for professors to provide policy advice through their own networks, or by means of newsletters, occasional papers, and seminars. ‘We seek to expand our role in consultancy. In the coming year or two, we will focus on consolidating our reputation as a policy adviser by continuing to produce high qualitywork and promoting it. We will also try to penetrate the area of local business consultancy and to enhance dialogue between the government and local businesses,’ remarks Prof. Fan. A family business club has been formed at the Centre for Entrepreneurship of the Business Faculty. Representatives of local