The International Chamber of Commerce today elected Hong Kong businessman Victor Fung as its new Vice-Chairman. Mr Fung was voted in by the ICC World Council, which brought together more than 100 of its business members from some 44 countries for a meeting in India this week.

Mr Fung, who is Chairman of the Li & Fung Group of companies, will begin his two-year term with ICC on 1 January 2007. He will also serve on the Executive Board of the organization alongside ICC Chairman Marcus Wallenberg and ICC Honorary Chairman Jean-René Fourtou.

Co-Chair of the Swiss-based Evian Group and Chairman of the Hong Kong-Japan Business Co-operation Committee, Mr Fung holds a number of civic and professional appointments and has written and spoken widely on international trade matters. A strong advocate of the multilateral trading system, he has served as Chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council; as the Hong Kong representative on the APEC Business Advisory Council; and as a member of the Informal Business Advisory Body to the World Trade Organization.

“With the Doha Trade round suspended and bilateral deals on the rise, there has never been a greater need for world business to speak loudly and forcefully in favour of the multilateral trading system,” said Mr Fung.

“I intend to reinforce this message during my term, and to work on raising ICC’s visibility in the Asia Pacific region,” he said.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Mr Fung holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical
engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in business
economics from Harvard University. He spent four years as a professor of finance at the Harvard Business School before returning to Hong Kong to join the private sector in 1976.

Please click here for a copy of Mr Fung’s biography