Welcome you all to the Rotary Year “Be a Gift to the World”

 First of all, I would like to salute and thank Immediate Past District Governor Belinda Yeung, all Past District Governors and Rotarians in building our District as one of the best performing District in the World.

It is my honor to be the District Governor of District 3450, consisting of Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia and The People’s Republic of China- Guangdong Province.  I am privileged to work with a team of fine Club Presidents.  The Presidents standing with me are leaders in their professions and businesses, who, individually and collectively, possess invaluable skills, knowledge and people network.  They have been selected to be the leader of their own Rotary Club and their club members talents are at their disposal.

The strength of Rotary lies in its members.  Our core value makes us the organization of its ONE kind.  The values of integrity, leadership, diversity, fellowship and service are the DNA share among the members.  It is important to have our members appreciate these values in relationship with our daily work and services, so as to live up the true spirit as a Rotarian.

The theme of this Rotary Year is “Be a Gift to the World”.  We have been receiving a lot of gifts since birth.  The first and the most amazing gift is our life itself. Thereafter we received love and nurture from our family.  We won over friendships when we went to school and at our workplace.  We further widened our horizon in friendship after we joined Rotary.  It is not right to keep all these “gifts” to ourselves and not offering them to the needy.  Rotary International President Ravi Ravindran challenges us to offer our gifts with our-stretched warm hands, BE A GIFT TO THE WORLD.

The Strength of our District is diversity, diversity in locations in covering different districts in Hong Kong, also in Macau and Mongolia.  In order to live up our Club name, we are obliged to develop service projects in the Districts which the clubs are named.  This offers the best opportunity to work hand in hand with the local district council and local non-government organizations.  Our other diversity is diversity in nationality, in turn our members enjoy encountering cultures of different kinds.  Promoting our membership through fellowship activities with a cultural theme would allow us to taste diversity in an enjoyable way.

The young generation will be in charge of our world sooner or later.  It is our duty to offer our gifts to equip them to face the challenge.  “Youth and Vocational” service is to enable them to have a better understanding and taste of their dream career, to prepare them with “life planning”.  “Youth and Peace” initiatives will be promoted via a series of mediation courses, peace concert and peace forum.  Equipping them with the tools to achieving a common ground in an effective way is the aim of this program.

Rotary offers me a gift to live beyond  myself.  I wish you will also find this MAGIC within Rotary.

Peter Pang
District Governor 2015-16
Rotary District 3450