Events 2013

In a bid to support the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015, the ASEAN Business Club (ABC) had just launched the ‘Lifting-the-Barriers Report’ at the Grand Hyatt on Friday, November 29, 2013, a white paper outlining possible solutions to critical bottlenecks and barriers hindering free trade in the region, such as economic nationalism, labour constraints, regulatory congestion and underdeveloped infrastructure. The LTB reports cover six priority sectors, namely Aviation, Connectivity, Infrastructure, Power & Utilities, Capital Markets, Financial Services and Healthcare. The ABC launched the white paper as a private sector initiative to support the development of an ASEAN Economic Community.

The 3rd Annual ABC Gala Dinner was held at the Island Ballroom at the Shangri-La Hotel. Co-hosts of this dinner were ABC Singapore co-chairs, Chew Gek Khim, Executive Chairman of the Straits Trading Company, and Simon Cheong, Chairman and CEO of SC Global Developments. The Keynote Speech was delivered by Tony Fernandes, Group CEO of AirAsia which provided a memorable and joyous conclusion to the Network ASEAN Forum 2013.

Key regional business leaders from across ASEAN gathered for the inaugural Network ASEAN Forum (NAF) to brainstorm solutions to some of the issues obstructing the creation of an integrated ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). The one-day NAF was held on 23 August at the Shangri-La Singapore Hotel.NAF Chairman, Patrick Walujo who is also an ASEAN Business Club (ABC) Council Member and the Managing Partner of Northstar Pacific Group stressed the timeliness of the NAF in enabling business leaders to discuss how to manage the targets set out by the AEC agenda.

Members of the ABC Advisory Council called on Emeritus Senior Minister of Singapore Goh Chok Tong on the 22nd of August 2013. Among those who were in attendance were Patrick Walujo, Managing Partner of Northstar Group, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Chairman & CEO of Ayala Corporation, Chew Gek Khim, Executive Chairman of Straits Trading Company, Tony Fernandes, Group CEO of AirAsia, Nazir Razak, Group Chief Executive of CIMB Group, Dr. Lim Cheok Peng, Managing Director of IHH Healthcare, Simon Cheong, Chairman & CEO of SC Global Developments, and Alex Newbigging, Group Managing Director of Jardine Cycle & Carriage.

ABC hosted the US-ASEAN CEO Luncheon in Kuala Lumpur. The Luncheon included CEOs and leaders from the ACE group, ConocoPhillips, Ernst & Young, Motorola Solutions, PricewaterhouseCoopers,Underwriters Laboratories LLC and IBM. In addition, the delegation was joined by the Policy Advisors to the US-ASEAN Business Council’s Chairman: former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and former U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia, Stapleton Roy.

The first event hosted by the ABC in 2013 was a meeting of the High Commissioner Premier Club. It was held at the Official Residence of the British High Commissioner, His Excellency Simon Featherstone, CMG. The meeting was attended by members of the High Commissioner Premier Club, mainly multinationals from the United Kingdom operating in the Southeast Asian region.