Hong Kong  - Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is to give her first speech outside North America at a Hong Kong conference in September, government radio announced Monday.

Palin, ridiculed for her lack of knowledge of world affairs during her 2008 candidacy, will give a keynote speech at the 16th Criminal Law Solicitors' Association (CLSA) Investors Forum, Hong Kong's government-run radio station RTHK said

The September 21-to-25 event will be the first international speaking engagement for the controversial former Alaska governor seen as a potential Republican candidate for the next presidential race.

Previous keynote speakers at the annual forum organized by the Hong Kong brokerage and investment group CLSA include former US president Bill Clinton, former US vice president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve Bank Alan Greenspan, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. (dpa)