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Rich global mix in leadership development project
set for rural China
HONG KONG, 11 JUNE 2007 – Executives from leading international corporations taking part in an innovative, practicable start-up programme addressing critical needs for future leaders are bringing their business skills to rural China to help a community climb from poverty to a sustainable future.

Joining the executives from the MTR Corporation, Shell China Exploration and Production, Jurong Port, Hewlett-Packard, Bayer, and V.S. Dempo are individual entrepreneurs, MBA candidates, and some of Hong Kong’s best and brightest university students. Jebsen & Co is sponsoring several participants.

They represent a rich mix of nationalities supporting the third Young Leaders Programme (YLP) from Denmark, Britain, India, Singapore, Germany, the Chinese Mainland as well as Hong Kong professionals.

The programme begins in Hong Kong today and will combine work and experiences on the Chinese Mainland over the next fortnight.

From classroom to real life
The YLP takes young executives of great promise to broaden their understanding of the role, responsibilities and challenges of business in a globalising world. It seeks to influence a fundamental shift in the understanding of business and its influence and impacts by engaging participants in life-changing field projects.

The YLP is designed and run by the Hong Kong-based Global Institute For Tomorrow: “Every Young Leaders Programme is based on creating a core outcome for the community. The programme is about leadership development but at the same time is uniquely designed to also build solutions for communities. Each will have something unique and this is the heart of the field project, which we call the life-changing experience,” Founder and Chief Executive Chandran Nair said.

“With Pingzhang, it’s the extreme poverty the villagers struggle with every day. They just need to get that helping hand when they need it to set them on their way,” Mr Nair said. “This programme aims to give them not only that boost, but also to take their deep desire for better lives and complement that with the tools and understanding to design and take control of own futures. That’s where the Young Leaders contribute their expertise.”

Challenges
Pingzhang farmers face challenges in generating income from altitude, harsh terrain and lack of knowledge that also hamper access and transport for their products.

The project is being driven in the village by a new, young chief, Bi Guang (毕光), who has been working with agencies to explore how to improve agricultural yields. He is also influenced by an earlier YLP collaboration that drew up a business plan with neighbouring Haitang village. As part of the Pingzhang project, participants are to follow up in Haitang with initial funds, and view villagers’ plans for irrigation and water sanitation systems for which the money is earmarked.

The field project draws business, civil society, regulators, and communities together to deliver a practicable, long-term outcome for communities, with participating corporations making real contributions for long-lasting change.

Mr Nair said he believed the YLP was the first programme of its kind in Asia.

The organisations supporting and lending expertise to the Pingzhang field project are: the Kunming Institute of Botany; the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF); and the Organic Food Development Center of China.

GIFT is in the late stages of planning the next YLPs for late 2007 in Hebei province, north-eastern China, and Laos.

About GIFT: www.globalinstitutefortomorrow.org/
GIFT is a pan-Asian, not-for-profit think tank that connects businesses, policy makers and civil society so they may find common ground from which to meet the challenges of globalisation.

About ICRAF: www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/
The World Agroforestry Centre works to advance the science and practice of agroforestry to transform the lives and landscapes of the rural poor in developing countries. Its aims to encourage smallholder rural households to use working trees on working landscapes to help ensure security in food, nutrition, income, health, shelter and energy and a regenerated environment.

About the Kunming Institute of Botany: www.kib.ac.cn/
The Kunming Institute of Botany carries out comprehensive multi-disciplinary research on the biodiversity and bioresources of subtropical broad-leaved forests and Himalayan sub-alpine vegetation. It studies regional and global botanical and social-economic development in mountain areas.

About the Organic Food Development Center: www.ofdc.org.cn/
Organic Food Development Center is China’s oldest and largest specialised organic research, inspection and certification organisation. Under the auspices of SEPA, the State Environmental Protection Agency, the OFDC promotes organic farming to encourage rural environmental protection, structural optimisation of agriculture, poverty alleviation, and the sustainable development of agriculture.

CONTACT:
Chandran Nair,
Founder and Chief Executive
Ph: (852) 3571 8103
Cell: (852) 9171 3981

Thomas Tang,
Managing Director
Ph: (852) 3571 8104
Cell: (852) 9160 7595

Bindiya Rupani,
Business Development
Manager
Ph: (852) 3571 8204

The Global Institute For Tomorrow
Suite 1002 Two Pacific Place
88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong
Ph: (852) 3571 8103
Fax: (852) 3585 3910
www.globalinstitutefortomorrow.org/

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