Dear Members,
I’m midway through a 4-country trip in the ASEAN region, so let me share a few takeaways. Our August 18-20 Philippines Business Mission, which our Chief Country Representative Third Bagro and his team organized superbly, started strongly with our 35 member companies meeting with President Marcos for 1.5 hours on day one. He set a forward-leaning tone that continued throughout the three days. Compared to two years ago, when I last led this business mission, my impression was that top government officials are more focused on working with USABC member companies and resolving difficulties in various sectors. One delegate wrote that the business mission was among her company’s best advocacy experiences in the region.
In Jakarta, where I spent August 23-27 to prepare for our November 3-5 Indonesia Business Mission and connect with member companies, I was glad to join our Indonesia Chief Country Representative Nugraheni Utami and a dozen member companies in an August 24 discussion with the Chairman of Indonesia’s National Economic Council, Luhut Pandjaitan, covering digital transformation and other issues. For our Indonesia team and member companies, this was the 45th meeting with GOI this year, an excellent example of detailed follow up after our business missions. Presidential Special Envoy for Climate and Energy Hashim Djojohadikusumo told us President Prabowo is likely to be in NYC for UNGA week, so we will aim for a member company event with him. I later had a chance to talk to a number of our member companies at an Indonesia Committee meeting hosted at Apple’s Developer Institute in South Jakarta.
Next is our inaugural Singapore Business Forum on September 4, featuring Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng, U.S. Ambassador to ASEAN Kevin Kim, renowned scholar/diplomat Kishore Mahbubani, and others, organized by Chief Country Representative James Andrade and his team. Hoping to see many of you there. After that, I’ll join Emma Tabatabai, our Chief Country Representative in Malaysia, on our business mission to East Malaysia, September 7-10, energy and natural-resource focused.
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Best Regards,
Brian
