On Thursday 13 March, the Peking University HSBC Business School was pleased to host a delegation from the American Chamber of Commerce in South China (AMCHAM), including a special lecture by AMCHAM President Harley Seyedin. Seyedin is also the Vice President of China Affairs for the Asia Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including personal recognition by President George Bush for Seyedin’s involvement in the establishment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He also was awarded a “Peace through Commerce Medal,” which is the highest honor awarded to an individual by the U.S. Department of Commerce and has only been awarded less than 20 individuals over the past 223 years.
The event was organized by Professor Terill Frantz as part of his course for on Managing China Cross Border Developments. International Business operations crossing the Chinese Border often pose significant difficulties for American and other Multi-National Companies.
As Harley Seyedin is also the President of Sithe Global Pacific (Its parent, Sithe global is a multi-national company with more than US$15 billion in power and energy projects under development worldwide).
With over 20 years of experience in doing business in China, Harley Seyedin addressed the school on some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges associated with it.
He also compiles an annual “White Paper” which does in depth commercial, industrial and statistical analysis of Sino-American trade and particularly, American companies doing business within China. He maintains an updated website which this information is available to the public free of charge [
http://www.amcham-southchina.org/index/index.jsp].
Harley Seyedin also held a question and answer session with Professor Hai Wen, who took turns addressing tough questions about Sino-Chinese trade and the Chinese Economy posed by the very well educated crowd of attendees in the PHBS lecture theater. Among those present were numerous industry professionals and academics from other institutions, many visiting from outside China.
PHBS especially welcomed delegates from the Tulane Univeristy MBA Program in the USA who were visiting from Hong Kong specifically for the event. At the end of the event, Professor Vincent Chang addressed the attendees about PHBS.
Peking University HSBC Business School was pleased to have held this event on campus and it is a milestone event which may generate continued interaction with AMCHAM and the other parties present. The Faculty, and Students of PHBS, and The Managing China Cross Border Development Class were deeply honored by Seyedin’s address and look forward to future cooperation. The Students of The Managing China Cross Border Development class would also like to issue a special thanks to Professor Frantz for organizing this event for the benefit of the School.
Written by Gregory Maillis
