Hong Kong, 12th November 2000 - Despite heavy rainfall and dropping temperatures, more than 10,000 staff and their family members attended the Hutchison Whampoa Group Annual Family and Sports Day. Many of these attending the event for their first time were from new companies in the Group including, Hutchison 3G UK, Powwow and Savers from the UK, Andala Spa from Italy, Sterling Cellular, Usha Martin and Fascel from India, Husky Energy from Canada, ETSA Utilities and Powercor from Australia.

Officiating at the opening ceremony, Mr Li Ka-shing, Chairman of the Group remarked, " Today I know quite a few Hong Kong companies planned to hold their sports day but many were cancelled due to bad weather. However Hutchison's Sports Day is going ahead as scheduled and I call this the "Hutchison Spirit !"

"Our Group has almost 100,000 employees in 24 countries around the world and we are still growing. Even though we are facing greater competition in all our markets, we are working hard to achieve better results all the time. I take this opportunity to thank you all for your hard work," Mr Li added.

The day's programme continued unabated despite the rain, including stage performances and contests, track and field events and telematches, as well as game booths set up by the subsidiaries of Hutchison.