At ease: Days ahead of the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, its Chairman John Tsang may be feeling the pressure - but he doesn't show it.

Fencing is a passion for John Tsang. He first took it up as a student at La Salle College, and today he still finds time to help coach a team there. Ahead of a competition, he says, "you need to train yourself, get in shape, prepare, learn the right techniques, understand your opponents.

"And then you need a little luck," he said.

The Secretary for Commerce, Industry & Technology - Hong Kong's trade chief - is also chairman of the WTO's Sixth Ministerial Conference, or MC6. His years of experience as a fencer may come in handy as delegates from the 148 member economies (149 when you add in Saudi Arabia, which is joining the body this week) spar and parry over a complex trade agreement.

Mr Tsang's extensive civil-service career has also helped prepare him for this "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity to host and chair the MC6. He joined the Hong Kong Government in November, 1982, after he befriended Donald Tsang when the two were enrolled in Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, studying towards a Master's Degree in Public Administration.

"That was the first time the Hong Kong Government had sent someone to Harvard and we got along pretty well. He suggested that I take the exam for the administrative officer. So I took the exam, and they sent someone over to give me the oral interview," he told news.gov.hk during an interview in his office just days ahead of the MC6. He was offered a job with the Government, and returned to Hong Kong after nearly two decades in the US.

Prestigious high school opens its doors

Mr Tsang is, in some ways, a product of free-trade's benefits himself. When he was 13, his steelworker father moved the family to the United States so he could take up work there.

The young Mr Tsang, the eldest of three brothers and a sister, quickly won entree into the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in New York. He went on to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and worked as an architect for some years before he decided to try his hand at teaching.

He earned a Master's Degree in bilingual education from Boston State College, allowing him to teach a transitional, bilingual programme for newly-arrived kids aimed at enabling them to learn in English within three years. Linguistics were at the core of his studies, and even today he enjoys reading Noam Chomsky.

Keen supporter of choice

When he first arrived in the US, he was not fluent in English himself, "but you learn very quickly because you're immersed in the environment." Being bullied was another incentive, he said. "But that was natural. We were living in the lower East Side, a pretty rough neighbourhood, so you learn to protect yourself."

He sees similarities between architecture - constructing buildings - and education, which builds minds. "A lot of disciplines have a universal grammar - a lot of it is about organisation, vision, innovative applications," Mr Tsang says.

"In Hong Kong, a lot of students have to decide what field they want to go into at an early age. If you're in science, you can move into art, but if you're in art, you can never go back into science," he says.

"In universities in Hong Kong, you don't have the opportunity to try out different things and find out what you really like. It's about choice, and I was glad I had that opportunity to try out different things."

After a few years' teaching, he grew a little bored and enrolled in the Harvard public administration programme where he and Donald Tsang crossed paths.

MC6 Chair 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity

After joining the Hong Kong civil service in 1982, he served as Administrative Assistant to the Financial Secretary from 1987 to 1991. He was Assistant Director-General of Trade from 1991 to early 1995; Private Secretary to Governor Chris Patten from 1995 to June 1997; Director-General of the London Economic & Trade Office from July 1997 to February 1999; Commissioner of Customs & Excise from March 1999 to July 2001; Secretary for Planning & Lands from July 2001 to June 2002; and Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning & Lands (Planning & Lands) from July 2002 to July 2003.

He was appointed Secretary for Commerce, Industry & Technology on August 4, 2003.  Mr Tsang's current policy responsibilities are wide-ranging, and include information technology, telecommunications, broadcasting, film services, innovation and technology, external commercial relations, industry and business support, intellectual property protection and inward investment promotion. And MC6 Chairman for the next week or so.

"This is not the kind of job that you can do twice," he says. "If you're the chair of a WTO meeting, it's once in a lifetime. I don't think there's anything that can prepare you for it. I was fortunate in that one of my earlier jobs I was in the trade department and at that time I was one of the negotiators in the Uruguay Round. I got to understand a bit about the WTO lingo and trade flows and all of that stuff."

Learning first-hand how poorer places manage

Preparatory work would be crucial, he knew, to lay the groundwork to get delegates communicating. He travelled extensively in the last year or so, spending only five days in Hong Kong in November. He was particularly keen to visit developing countries, as this Doha Development Round is focused on bringing them out of poverty through the tools of trade.

He found it easier talking to the people and visiting these poorer places, like Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica, Kenya, Zambia and Tanzania. "I met a lot of people and had a much better feel for the kind of conditions they are in," Mr Tsang says, adding he learned first-hand how they survive.

He has met a lot of the players who will be at the negotiating tables at the MC6. "In the last year I've met over 100 ministers and I know the key players well because you see the same people in all the informal meetings," he says, adding he's got to know more than a few of them quite well.

Hong Kong volunteered to host the meeting a few years ago, "against the background of SARS and a lot of depression in Hong Kong. We thought it would be quite useful for Hong Kong to host this. We have benefitted a great deal from the multilateral system, from free trade and all of that. We can show the world what we have done in the last 50 years as a result of free trade," he said.

"We think as a responsible international world citizen, this is our responsibility."

Many more issues to deal with post-MC6

Although he appeared calm and relaxed just days ahead of the meeting, would he be relieved when the MC6 came to an end?

"I'll be relieved that our responsibility for the Hong Kong Ministerial is over, but I will be more relieved when the whole round is completed and we will be able to achieve something to build up the trading system to provide benefits, particularly for the developing countries, which the round is intended to do," he said.

Of course, even after the last delegate flies home, there are many more issues that demand Mr Tsang's attention - including a call for an anti-spam bill, another for a Communications Authority, how Hong Kong can use wireless broadband, and the progress of several new R&D centres.

The meeting officially ends Sunday night, but there will be no rest for the weary. Mr Tsang has a full day of business to attend to on Monday, and answers to prepare for the Legislative Council session on Wednesday.

Mustachioed man emulates silver screen heroes

The 54-year-old is married with a 29-year-old son in the hospitality industry ("He lives in the US but he's in Hong Kong to open a hotel here") and a 24-year-old daughter, who is spending a year travelling and has just returned from Bhutan.

Fencing helps Mr Tsang keep stress at bay. It is also the reason for his easily recognisable moustache, which he has sported since college: " I thought it would make me fence better. [Australian-born onscreen swashbuckler] Errol Flynn sported one, and all the great fencers on the silver screen all have moustaches."

The consummate reader usually has more than one book on the go. He has just finished Frank McCourt's third book, Teacher Man. Mr Tsang was drawn to the author partly because he taught English to his sister, who also attended Stuyvestant.

He's also reading local author Chan Koon-chung's Chinese-language book, "Hong Kong Trilogy". Not surprisingly, his former boss's latest tome - Not Quite a Diplomat - is also on his bookshelf.

Films of all genres, but particularly Hong Kong films, also offer a brief escape, as does listening to jazz music.

So is he planning a holiday to unwind after the big event? "At this point, I don't really want to travel much. The last thing I want to do is fly again. I hope I'll have a quiet, peaceful Christmas here in Hong Kong - do nothing, sit around, eat a lot, watch a few movies. I think that would be pleasant."