We are honoured to have Chinachem Group CEO Donald Choi host the inaugural luncheon for ULI Hong Kong Young Leaders Group’s series on the topic of “Reinjecting Purpose into Real Estate”! Sharing conversations over lunch at the beautiful Nina Hotel Causeway Bay Penthouse, 16 attendees explored how to collectively adapt and innovate the way we think, work, and live as we emerge from the pandemic.

Donald opened the event with a keynote on how Chinachem Group is “Redefining ‘Smart City’ for Resilience in the New Normal”, and how as a community, we can jointly move forward with long-term sustainability. The legacy development of the Group for the past 60 years has mirrored Hong Kong’s transformation from a manufacturing economy to a major trade gateway, international finance & services hub, and subsequently a leading global tourist destination. The standard of living and desire for better quality of life also evolved as the demography shifted to a generation prioritizing liveability, preservation of culture, and building a sustainable future.

With a renewed vision, Donald shared ways Chinachem Group express their own shared-value concept by prioritizing “People, Prosperity and Planet” in their investments: developing “places with heart” through various efforts such as healthy aging with CUHK, optimizing building operations for a Smart City through PropTech and Smart City Tech applications, and launching initiatives with HKSTP. From the recent Chinachem Group branding transformation to a corporate cultural shift, Donald highlighted what leadership means in the “New Normal”. Business communities and individuals must embrace collaboration, inclusiveness, empathy, and adaptability in order to resolve the complex challenges ahead!

On behalf of the ULI’s Young Leaders Group, we would like to extend deep gratitude for the opportunity to get together (with socially distanced measures) to learn from the esteemed speaker Donald, as well as fellow industry peers for their diverse insights on topical issues from liveability, PropTech, to culture and quality of life that are close to heart. Thank you to our event and venue sponsor Chinachem Group and the supporting teams. We look forward to more engaging conversations together on social innovation and collaborations. Please reach out to YLG Committee members Fay and Wendy should you have any collaboration ideas for this new series of “Reinjecting Purpose into Real Estate”.

Contributor: Fay Li, Wendy Tsai

About ULI HK YLG Reinjecting Purpose into Real Estate Series:

Recent social unrest and worldwide pandemic called to action numerous topics for the Hong Kong community to address in order to stay forefront as a global city. We see many opportunities for leaders in the development scene and local interest groups to come together and redefine what we do to create shared and added values that innovate the way we think, work, and live.

Through this series, we hope to connect interests and raise awareness with social innovation, new modes of collaboration that break traditional institutional boundaries for the greater good of the Hong Kong community.