Brian Chau Tak-hay, GBS

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(; born 26 January 1943) is a former Hong Kong government official. He has served in many positions regarding to trade, including the

Secretary for Trade and Industry A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a wh ...

from 1991 to 1995 and from 1998 to 2002 and

Secretary for Broadcasting, Culture and Sport The Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism is the head of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau for the Hong Kong Government, which is responsible for cultural, arts, and sports affairs previously handled by the Home Affairs Bureau, and works ...

from 1995 to 1998. Since 2002, he has been Special Consultant to the

Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China The Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China (MOFCOM) is a cabinet-level executive agency of the State Council of China. It is responsible for formulating policy on foreign trade, export and import regulations, foreign direct ...

Education and government career

Chau was born in 1943 in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. He was graduated from the

St. Joseph's College, Hong Kong St. Joseph's College also referred to by its acronym SJC is an elite Catholic all-boys secondary education institution run by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in Central Mid-Levels district, Hong Kong. It was established ...

in 1961 and the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fi ...

in 1967 and joined the Hong Kong government on the same year. During his early career, Chau was involved in the formulation of Hong Kong's foreign trade policies, establishing and negotiating the bilateral textiles arrangements between Hong Kong and importing countries under the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA), at the time when Hong Kong textiles industry was booming. In 1979, Chau was appointed as Hong Kong's permanent representative to the

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas. According to its pre ...

(GATT) and served until 1984. After he returned to Hong Kong in 1984, he continued to serve in many positions, including Regional Secretary for Hong Kong and Kowloon in the City and New Territories Administration and

Secretary for Health and Welfare The Secretary for Health () is a ministerial position in the Hong Kong Government, who heads the Health Bureau. The current office holder is Lo Chung-mau. The position was created on 1 July 2022, following the reshuffle of the principal off ...

from 1988 to 1989. In that capacity, he was also an official member of the

Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's " one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Kong ...

. In 1990, his position dropped as the Director-General of Trade, where he responded with "a step back after a year a boundless as the sea and sky". After a year, he was re-promoted to

from 1991 and 1995 and

from November 1995 to March 1998. In 1990, he famously commented on Singapore by noting that Singapore had "advantages" over Hong Kong's in implementing unpopular policies to tackle the economic downturn (such as wage cuts) because the

People's Action Party The People's Action Party (abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) and ...

has nearly complete control over parliament, the media, trade unions and the people. He further added: "Of course we are different from Singapore. The opposition parties in Singapore do not raise opposition. If they do raise opposition, the might be arrested...our legislative council has 60 opposition members." The ''

Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was establishe ...

'' replied with a bitter editorial that denounced Chau's "misinformed and inaccurate comments." He was appointed again as Secretary for Trade and Industry in March 1998 in which the position was renamed Secretary for Commerce and Industry in July 2000. He retired from the government in 2002 after he was not invited to be principal official under the new

Principal Officials Accountability System Principal Officials Accountability System, commonly referred to as the Ministerial system (), sometimes the Accountability System, was introduced in Hong Kong by chief executive Tung Chee Hwa in July 2002. It is a system whereby all principal ...

of the

Tung Chee-hwa Tung Chee-hwa (; born 7 July 1937) is a Hong Kong businessman and politician who served as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong between 1997 and 2005, upon the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July. He is currently a vice-chairman of the Chin ...

administration. Upon his retirement, he was awarded

Gold Bauhinia Star The Gold Bauhinia Star (, GBS) is the highest Bauhinia Star rank in the honours system of Hong Kong, created in 1997 to replace the British honours system of the Order of the British Empire after the transfer of sovereignty to People's Republic of ...

(GBS).

Retirement and personal life

After his retirement, he was appointed as Special Consultant to the

regarding to

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...

(WTO) matters since 2002. He has also held many company directorships, including the Wheelock and Company Ltd., SJM Holdings Limited, Tradelink Electronic Commerce Limited and China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. He married Ada Wong Ying-kay, a culture activist and former chairman of the

Wan Chai District Council The Wan Chai District Council is the district council for the Wan Chai District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. The Wan Chai District Council currently consists of 13 members, of which the district is divided into 13 constituencies ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chau, Tak-hay 1943 births Living people Alumni of the University of Hong Kong Government officials of Hong Kong Hong Kong civil servants Hong Kong businesspeople Recipients of the Gold Bauhinia Star