The Annual General Meeting of AustroCham was held on 20 March 2026 with the following Board of Directors elected:
Chairman: Mr. Wilhelm Brauner
Vice Chairman: Mr. Michael Zankel
Secretary: Ms. Belinda Esterhammer
Treasurer: Mr. Oliver Hoffmann
Director: Ms. Jennifer Veigel
Director: Mr. Christian Buggelsheim
Director: Mr. David Lielacher
We thank all our members, sponsors, and participants of our events for their continuous support and are looking forward to seeing you often during the 2026 membership year.
Report by the Chairman at the AGM of AustroCham, 20 March 2026
Dear Members,
Looking back at 2025 it was a year of many surprising twists and turns. As the world,
especially in geopolitics, has entered a new stage of uncertainty with on and off tariffs
among others, we at the Austrian Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong & Macau tried to
keep things as steady as possible. For this I would like to thank my fellow board
members, our secretariat, and especially you, our members
.
Though towards the end of the year more positive than negative news made its way
through the Hong Kong economy the economic environment is still challenging. It is
encouraging that we have seen new members joining us. We continued with our firstTuesday-of-the-month Stammtisch having at times special presentations like the
Lufthansa Group in September.
A special Stammtisch edition followed by a delicious dinner was organized in Macau.
Thanks to members from Hong Kong joining as well we could bridge the Pearl River
Delta and bring Austrians of the Greater Bay Area together.
The Greater Bay Area being ever more a focal point of integration we were part of two
inspection tours organized by the Guangdong Department of Commerce to Jiangmen
and Shaoguan. We also would like to give a big thank you to the Austrian Consulate
General and the Austrian Trade Commission for their great collaboration.
Thanks to the standing of AustroCham you are very welcome to raise issues you would
like to bring to the attention of the governments of Hong Kong and Macau. As we have
regular meetings with the Chief Executive and his administration we can present these
topics at a very senior level. In Hong Kong we regularly attend the meetings of the
International Business Committee being chaired by the Finanical Secretary. This year
we had weather luck on our side and our Heurigen was finally held at the outdoor
arrival deck of the Marco Polo Hotel with the gorgeous skyline of Hong Kong as a
backdrop.
Through InterCham we are in constant exchange with fellow foreign chambers and
continued the promotion of the D-A-CH label in Hong Kong to strengthen our presence.
Going with the times we had some changes at our secretariat and believe to have found
in the end a steady solution to take us forward with Ms. Willemina Lin as our
Administration Manager.
We thank very much all our sponsors and supporters for their contributions in
enlivening our activities! We appreciate members’ initiatives to co-host interesting
topics. Do reach out to us and we are always happy to hear from you.
Many thanks are due to all my colleagues for their dedicated service as well as to our
loyal membership who make AustroCham what it is. On a personal note my children
have started schooling in Vienna last September increasing my travel back and forth,
but bringing the advantage of more feedback directly from Austria. As my dedication
remains the same we are working on rejuvenating our board.
Servus!