Hong Kong Jockey Club’s two-day philanthropic event concludes with calls for global collaboration in quest for fairer societies

To discuss these and other issues, nearly 70 prominent speakers and 1,600 delegates, including over 180 representatives from regional and global foundations, gathered at the West Kowloon Cultural District on September 11 and 12 for the Philanthropy for Better Cities Forum, convened by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.

Welcoming delegates to the third edition of the Philanthropy for Better Cities Forum, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said: “Hong Kong is determined to play an increasingly important role in advancing philanthropy and the social impact it can make.

“It helps that we have The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust to turn to, for organising the Philanthropy for Better Cities Forum, and a great deal more.”

Opening the forum, The Hong Kong Jockey Club chairman Michael Lee highlighted the many global challenges to be discussed.

“I’m thrilled this morning to announce that we are establishing the Institute of Philanthropy [IoP],” he said. “We see it as a ‘think-fund-do’ organisation. We aim to establish the IoP as a dependable source of philanthropic knowledge, and to leverage its resources to strengthen the professionalism of funders in the Special Administrative Region, nationwide, throughout Asia and beyond.”

The initiative is backed by the Club with initial funding of HK$5 billion (US$640 million).

The forum’s four keynote speakers, four plenary discussions and nine panel sessions brought together movers in the philanthropic sector, and leading policymakers and figures in the world of academia, sports, science and the arts.

Notable speakers included Abhijit Banerjee, the 2019 Nobel laureate in economics and Ford Foundation international professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Abhisit Vejjajiva, former prime minister of Thailand and Justin Yifu Lin, dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University and former chief economist of The World Bank. Other prominent speakers included Amitav Ghosh, author and winner of the Jnanpith Award and Dan David Prize, Christiana Figueres, former United Nations climate chief and co-host of podcast “Outrage + Optimism”, Academy-Award-winning actor Ke Huy Quan, jockey Karis Teetan from The Hong Kong Jockey Club, Naveen Rao, senior vice-president (health initiative) of The Rockefeller Foundation, and Paul Schreier, interim CEO of the Wellcome Trust.

Click on the video to view highlights of the event.