Britain's 48 Group Club on Thursday presented its annual Icebreaker Award to four Hong Kong business people for their contribution to the development of Sino-British relations and the prosperity of Hong Kong.

The four businessmen were Cheng Yu-tung, chairman of the New World Development Company Limited, Leo Lee Tung-hai, chairman of Tung Tai Group of companies, David Li Kwok-po, chairman of the Bank of East Asia Limited, and Vincent Lo Hong-sui, chairman of the Shui On Group.

This is the first time that the 48 Group Club, a prestigious business-led social networking organization, has presented the award in Hong Kong.

Founded in the early 1950s, the 48 Group was the first group of western businesses to visit and trade with the newly founded People's Republic of China, breaking through the embargoes imposed on the country by the western world at the time.

Apart from the Icebreaker Award, the group also presented to leading British and Chinese companies such awards as the U.K. Exporter of the Year, Chinese Inward Investor of the Year and the U.K. Outward Investor of the Year.

(Xinhua News Agency October 5, 2007)