Professor Xu Jialu, Vice Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, speaks in Distinguished Speaker Series

The Estate Agents Authority (EAA) was honoured to have Professor Xu Jialu, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), as its speaker for the third seminar in the Distinguished Speaker Series on 23 March 2006. The presence of such an esteemed guest as Professor Xu was a great encouragement to estate agency practitioners in Hong Kong.

More than 600 people, including estate agency practitioners, EAA Members and various trade representatives, attended the seminar.

Professor Xu's speech, “The Eleventh 5-year Programme and Hong Kong's Service Industry”, covered the thinking behind the Eleventh 5-year Programme and analysed the problems and difficulties in the country's development. In his view, as the Mainland gradually developed and reformed its systems and regulated and standardised its service industries, Hong Kong could expand on its strengths in human resources, its experience and capital resources. Taking the property sector as an example, Professor Xu said, Hong Kong's competitive edge is in providing well-regulated, legal and honest estate agency services.

Serving as Vice Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee since 1998, Professor Xu is a renowned linguist and was formerly the Chairman of the State Language Work Committee and Vice President of the Beijing Normal University.

Ms Sandy Chan, Chief Executive Officer of EAA, said EAA introduced the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Scheme last May to encourage practitioners to participate in continuing professional development and acquire more knowledge. She said, “Knowledge is power, and it is through the acquisition of more knowledge that one can gain more power. For a profession to have a future, its practitioners must continue to learn.”

Professor Xu Jialu, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, speaks on “The Eleventh 5-year Programme and Hong Kong's Service Industry” in the third seminar of the Distinguished Speaker Series.

EAA Member Mrs Amy Liu presents a souvenir to Professor Xu Jialu on behalf of the Authority.

Professor Xu Jialu with EAA Members prior to the seminar: (from left) Mr Eric Lee; Mr Joseph Tsang; Mr Wilson Wong; Dr Charles Cheung; Chief Executive Officer Ms Sandy Chan; Professor Xu; Mr Lun Chi-yim; Mrs Amy Liu; Mr William Leung; and Mr Paul Ma.

(From left) Chief Executive Officer Ms Sandy Chan, Professor Xu Jialu and Chairman of the EAA Professional Development Committee Mr Joseph Tsang at the question and answer session.