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Asia Forum 2009
June 6-7, 2009
Report

  
  Background

 Asia Forum is a proliferation of the SE Asia Forum first initiated by the Hong Kong Business Association Vietnam and held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in 2004. It was repeated in Thailand (Bangkok) in 2005, Singapore in 2006, Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City) again in 2007 and in China (Guangzhou) in 2008.

On 6-7 June 2009, Hong Kong Business Association Vietnam (HKBAV) played host to this annual forum for the third time, facilitated by the Secretariat of the Federation of Hong Kong Business Associations Worldwide. The dates were chosen purposely to coincide with the 10th anniversary of HKBAV.

Participants

A total of 31 representatives from the Hong Kong Business Associations in Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore attended the forum :

- Hong Kong Business Association, Vietnam – HKBAV (15)
- Thai Hong Kong Trade Association – THTA (7)
- Hong Kong Singapore Business Association - HSBA (9)

Special thanks go to Mr. Victor Sun, former Chairman of HKBAV, who initiated the idea of an annual regional forum held among SE Asia’s HKBAs and subsequently hosted the first regional forum in Ho Chi Minh City in 2004. Mr. Sun flew all the way from China to Vietnam (Ho Minh City) to attend this 6th Asia Forum and 10th anniversary celebration of HKBAV.

Programme Highlights

Members’ Session (6 June 2009)

Mr. Michael Chiu shared on the activities of HKBAV in the past year:
  • With an enriched programme and an active membership recruitment drive, HKBAV had successfully recruited more new members over the past year. As of April 09, HKBAV had a total of 247 members.
  • HKBAV had also organised many business events like the Vietnam business forum, a tax seminar, and co-organised events with local business chambers throughout the year.
Mr. Stanley Mak shared on the activities and the membership drive of HSBA:
  • HSBA organised a steady stream of business events for its members including a Luncheon Talk on “Investment Strategy in Inflationary Time”, and an Investment Outlook luncheon talk by Dr Tan Kee Wee.
  • HSBA launched very successful member recruitment competition with a sponsored trip to HK Forum 2009 plus other prizes as attraction. As a result, a total of 72 new members were recruited.
Dr. Charles Cheung shared on the activities of THTA:
  • THTA maintained its membership in the past year and concentrated on organising social functions to promote further networking amongst its members.
  • Both HKBAV and THTA were active in charity activities, having raised and donated funds to the 2008 Szechuan earthquake victims.
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Result & Recommendation

All members concurred that Asia Forum was a good platform for networking, sharing experience and making new contacts. It was recommended to continue organising the Forum on an annual basis.

There was a general consensus to hold the Asia Forum 2010 in Singapore given the appeal of the integrated resort which would be opened end of 2009, subject to the final approval of the Executive Committee of HSBA.


Other Optional Programmes

Keynote Luncheon (6 June 2009)

We had the honour of having Mr Tom Tobin, CEO of HSBC Vietnam, to speak at this occasion to share his insights on the “Global and Vietnam Economic Outlook”. A very Q&A session ensued with hot questions raised to the Keynote Speaker.

The event was well attended by 140 attendees (including 31 HKBAs members and 110 local companies).
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HKBAV 10th Anniversary Dinner (6 June 2009)

The dinner was well attended by 336 guests including overseas participants. Members found it a good networking platform to know more local contacts.
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Farewell luncheon (7 June 2009)

12 members joined the farewell luncheon on 7 June.


  
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