President's Newsletter

Dear Members,

Greetings from Vientiane where we just wrapped up Day One of our annual Business Mission to Laos.  Earlier this week, we also completed our annual Business Mission to Singapore.

In Singapore, our Business Mission gave us a chance to meet with the fourth generation Ministerial leadership.  During the course of the year and through our most recent business mission, we have now been able to meet with the three Ministers who are in the running to become Singapore’s next Prime Minister, including H.E. Heng Swee Keat, H.E. Ong Ye Kung and H.E. Chan Chun Sing.  Each was impressive in his own right, and I am confident that Singapore will be in good hands no matter which of these Ministers ultimately succeeds Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sometime in the coming years.

Dear Members,

To all those who celebrated, I hope you had a happy Eid! 

Greetings from Washington as I prepare to head out to Bangkok this weekend for our 2018 Thailand Business Mission and our meeting with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.  This visit to the region will also see short stops in Singapore and Jakarta before returning to the USA. 

We have a busy few weeks starting next week including visits to Washington by Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue and Indonesia’s Energy Minister Ignasius Jonan.  We hope you and your colleagues will be able to join us for these events and others highlighted below in our looking ahead section.

President’s Newsletter – April 2018

Dear Members,

First, I want to wish all our friends in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand a very happy new year.

This past month, like those before it, has been extremely busy.  We have moved issues ahead for our members in multiple countries, been hosted by the ASEAN Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, host a number of Ministers in Washington, DC and lead a sectoral business mission to Vietnam alongside our annual Business Mission. 

This week in Washington, DC we will host Deputy Prime Minister Prawit of Thailand, welcome four U.S. Ambassadors back to Washington for the start of our annual U.S. Ambassadors’ Tour.  Ambassadors Donovan (Indonesia), Bitter (Laos), Davies (Thailand) and Kritenbrink (Vietnam) are the Ambassadors joining the 2018 tour.

President’s Newsletter – February 2018

Dear Members,

First, I want to wish everyone a Happy Lunar New Year!   May the Year of the Dog bring you great health, happiness and prosperity.

As we head towards March, the Council’s schedule is really starting to heat up.   We just welcomed a U.S. Congressional Delegation in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand and gave our members based in these countries an opportunity to hear directly from American lawmakers about what is happening in Washington, as well as for the Congressmen to learn from our members about important issues in the region.  Among the members of Congress on the delegation were Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee who led the delegation as well as Chairman Ted Yoho (R-FL) who Chairs the House Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.