Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 1993

CITATIONS D r . Cheng Y u Tu n g, D B A , L L D , DPMS Shunde Co u n ty i n Gu a n g d o ng Province must have ver y good feng shu i because its sons have the habit of turning into billionaires i n Hong Kong, and having made thei r fortunes, they have the habit of donating large sums of money to support schools, hospitals, roadbuilding projects and oldpeople's homes in their native villages. Such a favourite son is the Hong Kong based and i n t e r n a t i o n a l ly r e n own ed entrepreneur Dr. Cheng Y u Tung. Cheng was born into a merchant family in Shunde and started his working life at the age of 15 as an apprentice at a jeweller's shop in Macau owned by his father's close friend Mr . Chow Tai Fook. Young Cheng Y u Tun g was both intelligent and industrious and had a natural flair for business. Mr . Chow liked h i m so much that he gave Cheng his daughter's hand and later sol d h im the shop. Having taken charge, Cheng Y u Tung, who has excellent business sense, correctly assessed that Hong Kong wou ld have much better growth potential than Macau after the Second Wo r ld War. He moved to Hong Kong in 1945 and started a ver y successful chain of jewellery shops in the territory. To this day the name Chow Tai Fook is synonymous w i th high quality and good value in jewellery. I n 1958, Cheng, b y now an established businessman, made hi s first foray into Hong Kong' s real estate market. His rational e was simple. He thought that there was a l imit to the growth potential of the jewellery business in Hong Kong but no l imit to the property business. Again , the phenomenal success of his company, New Wo r ld Development, has proved h im right. Mr . Chancellor, i f entrepreneurship is about taking calculated financial risks, then Dr. Cheng Y u Tung is an entrepreneur par excellence. He is not onl y capable of moving his business geographically and diversifying his investments across many fields, but the next big gamble which catapulted New Wo r ld Development into the big league of property developers in Hong Kong has all the hallmark of a daring entrepreneur playing w i th very high stakes. After the riots of 1967 shook Hong Kong to its foundation and whe n China was still in the throes of the Cultural Revolution, Cheng Y u Tung bough t a piece of land at 46th Congregation 18