Readers of Swire News – many of whom live outside the Hong Kong SAR – will be very aware of the difficult and stressful time endured over the past months by the territory's residents, Government, institutions and businesses (including those of the Swire Group).

The Swire Group has been active in Mainland China and Hong Kong for 150 years and, while the various crises faced by it over that time have differed in nature and in duration, the Group's commitment to persevere through thick and thin has been, and remains, unwavering. However, we hope that those whose task it is to find solutions to the present difficulties do so promptly, peacefully and harmoniously.

The Swire Group continues nevertheless to have great confidence in Hong Kong's future and in the bright opportunities that its growth, alongside that of China as a whole, will offer both individuals and commercial firms, and it will continue to invest in and wholeheartedly to support the development of those opportunities.

Barnaby Swire

Chairman
John Swire and Sons Limited