Asia Forum 2018 (21 June 2018, Dorsett Grand Subang, Malaysia) Asia Forum is an annual regional forum organised by the Federation of Hong Kong Business Associations Worldwide in a Southeast Asian city. This event serves the purpose of facilitating exchange between Hong Kong Business Associations in the region to cultivate deeper connections and business networking. The event is open to members of the 33 HK Business Associations under the Federation with active participation from members in Asia. The Asia Forum was successfully held consecutively in various cities in Asia - hosted by respective member associations. With the support from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the Hong Kong – Malaysia Business Association (HKMBA) played host to the 15th Asia Forum held on 21 June 2018 at Dorsett Grand Subang, Malaysia. PARTICIPANTS With HKMBA as the host country this year, 86 participants attended the15th Asia Forum, including 25 representatives from the Hong Kong Business Associations in Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam as follows: Japan Hong Kong Society (Kansai and Miyagi) Hong Kong-Singapore Business Association Hong Kong Business Association, Vietnam Thai- Hong Kong Trade Association Indonesia Hong Kong Business Association Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Inc (HKCCPI) Hong Kong Business Association Cambodia PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS To kickstart the Asia Forum, a Business Luncheon was organised with Tan Sri Dato’ David Chiu, Chairman of Far East Consortium International Limited delivering his Keynote Address entitled “Hong Kong Expertise for Business Advancement in Malaysia”. Tan Sri Dato’ David shared candidly about how some of his property development projects in Malaysia borrowed the HK expertise and experience, making Malaysia one of the attractive places for investment in South-East Asia. The Q&A session was facilitated by Mr. Wayne Lim, Secretary and Founding Members, HKMBA, touched on business-centric topics such as property market in Malaysia and Hong Kong on still being the gateway to access the biggest market in the world, namely China. The Chapter Meeting was held immediately after the Business Luncheon. Welcome Remarks Mr. Dixon Chew, President and Founding Member, HKMBA extended a warm welcome to all attending participants. Update on Hong Kong and HKTDC’s promotional activities Mr. Peter Wong, Regional Director, South-East Asia & South Asia, HKTDC shared updates on six areas namely, (1) Hong Kong; (2) Belt and Road Initiative; (3) Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area; (4) ASEAN; (5) Innovation & Start-ups; and (6) HKTDC’s promotional activities in the region and in Malaysia. Discussion Session 1 - Initiatives and Activity Plans of Hong Kong Business Associations in 2018/2019 Members were invited to highlight major initiatives and activity plans for 2018/2019, how HKBAs could attract more young members and to explore the possibilities of establishing “Youth Group/sub chapter” and how to make use of the activities to explore the Asian markets, especially to capitalise the opportunities brought by Belt and Road Initiative via Hong Kong platform. Moreover, the following representatives from Hong Kong Business Association, Vietnam, Hong Kong-Singapore Business Association, Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce Philippines Inc., Indonesia Hong Kong Business Association, Thai-Hong Kong Trade Association, Hong Kong Malaysia Business Association and the Japan Hong Kong Society to shared and discussed their achievements and activities in the past year. Discussion Session 2 - Federation of Hong Kong Business Associations- proposed election mechanism Members are invited to discuss and nominate candidates for the upcoming election for the new Federation Chairman and Honorary Secretary; and to provide suggestions on enhancing the HK Forum programme to boost participants for this year’s edition. Closing Remarks Mr. Wayne Lim, Secretary and Founding Member, HKMBA thanked everyone and the 8 chapters for giving their time to attend the Asia Forum including Chapter Meeting. He viewed that the members do not need to feel too discouraged about the difficulty in attracting members since they have to manage their own business and the business associations at the same time. Given each chapter’s set of unique characteristics, history and challenges, he stated that everyone has done a fantastic job of managing the business associations so far and going forward, he hopes that the ideas discussed today would serve them well in planning their direction for the year ahead. Asia Forum Welcome Dinner After a whole day of active participation, the members had the opportunity to unwind and were treated to a scrumptious dinner at Canton-I Restaurant in Sunway Pyramid. The dinner was kindly sponsored and hosted by Datuk Henry Yip, Vice President and Founding Member, HKMBA.