ASEAN Business & Investment Summit 2017

Last friday, I attended a press briefer for the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (ABIS). I learned about what ABIS is, what their goals are and what we can look forward in the upcoming ASEAN Summit on November 12-14, 2017.

Media composed of traditional journalists & bloggers attended the event. I came as a blogger so here I am writing about what I learned in this post. Hopefully, I am able to share some insights about the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit.

We were given a chance to hear from ABAC council members:

• Jose Ma. A. Concepcion III – Joey is appointed as Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship by President Rodrigo Duterte to help in MSME development. He is also the Chairman of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council in 2017 Philippine Charimanship of ASEAN. Joey is also the founder of the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship – Go Negosyo. It aims to alleviate Poverty by empowering entrepreneurs and eventually transform the country into an enterprising nation. Go Negosyo has become an inspiring and motivational movement that also empowers the Filipino with Entrepreneurship education as the way to succeed in life and business. For PCE, this is the lasting solution to poverty.
• George T. Barcelon – George is the current president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry; the largest business organization in the country. He represents the private sector in the Industry Development Council and National Competitive Council. He is also one of three Philippine representatives to the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC). He is the member, representing the Private Sector, Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).
• Teresita Sy-Coson – Tessie is the Vice Chairperson of SM Investments Corporation (SMIC), one of the Philippines’ leading groups with interests in retail, banking and property development. With over four decades of retail experience, Ms. Sy-Coson has helped transform the group’s retail business, which includes the flagship SM department stores under the SM Store and SM Markets which consist of SM supermarket and other retail affiliates. She also works closely in the Group’s property business via SM Prime Holdings, Inc., where she sits as an Adviser to the Board of Directors. SM Prime Holdings, Inc., is one of the largest integrated property developers in Southeast Asia with interests in malls, residences, commercial buildings, leisure and tourism development. In banking, Ms. Sy-Coson is the Chairperson of BDO Unibank (BDO), the Philippines’ leading bank to date in terms of total assets, loans, deposits, capital and trust funds under management. BDO was recently named the Best Bank in the Philippines by various international publications. She serves as the Vice Chairperson of SM Foundation, Inc. (SMFI), which takes the lead in implementing a community impact template that improves the quality of life of its host communities. It makes targeted social investments in education, healthcare, livelihood and shelter to help underserved Filipinos and promotes initiatives to enhance the sustainability of the environment. Tessie is also one of three Philippine representatives to the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC).
• Gil Gonzales – He also concurrently serves as Executive Director of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN BAC). The ASEAN BAC Secretariat is based in Jakarta, Indonesia. ASEAN BAC is the Lead Private Sector Body that provides advice and feedback to the ASEAN Economic Ministers and Leaders relative to the ASEAN economic integration program. He gets invited as a regular speaker by different business organizations to conduct orientation on Corporate Governance and Risk Management. He served as President of the Good Governance Advocates and Practitioners of the Philippines from 2014-2015. GGAPP is leading non-stock, non-profit association committed to promoting good governance reforms in the Philippines. It is comprised mainly of compliance officers of listed companies GGAPP was invited by SEC to help develop the Philippine CG Blueprint in 2015.
• Josephine Romero – over 20 years of experience in a diverse portfolio in both private and public sectors. She has worked in New York, Washington DC, Silicon Valley, São Paulo and Manila. Currently CEO of a fin tech startup in Southeast Asia, she is back to entrepreneurship after a decade in corporate and diplomatic service. She also sits on the boards of several organizations in Asia and North America. She earned her degree at the University of the Philippines School of Economics. She completed the Leadership California Issues and Trends Program and the Society for Information Management Regional Leadership Forum Program in the US. As a private citizen, Jopin continues to contribute to nation building and regional integration. She acts as adviser to the chairman of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council as the country hosts the 50th anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation’s founding with aim to achieve Prosperity for All through entrepreneurship.

Gil Gonzales gave us an overview of the ABAC (ASEAN Business Advisory Council):

The ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ABAC) is the APEX private sector partner of ASEAN. The council designed the ABIS (ASEAN Business and Investment Summit) to be the platform for conversation among regional and global stakeholders and thought leaders working to strengthen the ASEAN Economic Community.

More than 1,000 leaders from the business and policy making communities from the ASEAN 10 member states and beyond will converge as speakers and attendees. Speakers will include heads of governments and C-level executives from global businesses & think tanks. The audience will be an aggregate of corporate leaders, government executives, MSMEs, youth & woman leaders and various enablers.

On the 50th year of ASEAN and under the Philippine hosting, ABIS 2017 promises to be the biggest business and state leaders’ event of the year, organized by the ASEAN Business Advisory Council led by Chairman Joey Concepcion.

The ASEAN Business and Investment Summit aspires to give more focused and definite direction to the ASEAN economy, which already attracted $136.2 billion in FOIs in 2014, of which nearly 20% came from member nations. It aims to give greater and more sustainable roles and direction to the region’s MSME, including the youth sector, both enablers and critical users of technology, while taking into consideration the knowledge that roughly half of their respective populations are women. Achieving ASEAN MSMEs Action Plan 2016-2025 recognizes the importance of “internationalization” or the horizontal integration of the sector.

Jopin provided the ABIS (ASEAN Business and Investment Summit) 2017 Flow:

What: Biggest and most prestigious business event during the ASEAN50
When: November 12-14, 2017
Where: Solaire Grand Resort and Casino, Aseana Drive, Pasay City, Philippines
Theme: World Leaders’ Roadmap Towards Prosperity for All

ABIS 2017’s theme of “World Leaders’ Roadmap Towards Prosperity for All” aligns with the Prosperity for All thrust of the ASEAN BAC under the Philippine Chairmanship in ASEAN50. In achieving this, the framework of 3Ms: mentorship, money and market, is a key focus to enable help for our micro, small and medium enterprises.

The summit will sketch a blueprint in achieving ASEAN 100 and the true meaning of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).

Program Flow:

• November 12 (Sunday)
  • Launch of the ASEAN Mentorship for Entrepreneurs Network (AMEN)
    • AMEN is a pool of mentors across the 10-member countries who will help MSMEs scale up.
    • 53 mentors to be pioneer mentors in the PH will be launched on this day.
  • Invited State Leaders:
    • Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte
    • Indonesia President Joko Widodo
    • Myanmar State Councellor Aung San Suu Kyi
    • Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
• November 13 (Monday)
  • Opening day of the ASEAN State Leaders Summit.
  • Invited State Leaders:
    • China Premier Li Keqiang
    • Russia Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev
    • Korea President Moon Jae-In
    • Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
    • India Prime Minister Narendra Modi
    • Australia Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
• November 14 (Tuesday)
  • Closing day of the ASEAN State Leaders Summit.
  • Day will be opened by Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and will be closed by our very own beloved Vice President Leni Roberto
  • Invited State Leaders:
    • 14th Philippine President Gloria M. Arroyo
    • UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
    • European Council President Donald Tusk
    • ASEAN Secretary General Le Luong Minh
    • US Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson
    • Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
    • Philippine Vice-President Leni Robredo <3

In between Keynote messages from leaders, the following topics will be discussed in business forums:

1. ASEAN Build, Build, Build: Building for the Future (Infrastructure Development)
2. Unleashing Women Economic Power and Human Capital Development
3. Right Money + Open Markets = Prosperity for All
4. On to ASEAN100: Perspectives of the World Today and Beyond
5. Shared Economy
6. Entrepreneurship in the Digital Economy

Joey, Tessie & George, on the other hand, entertained questions from the audience and provided more context on what the ABAC Council wants to achieve for this year’s ABIS.

They stressed that the ABIS is a platform where government and private sector can have a venue for investments, partnership and others. It enables greater participation in a growing economy and enable many SMEs to understand the new format of digital economy to cross-over from their level of economy to be successful and not be left behind.

They mentioned Being INCLUSIVE countless times. They emphasized that the ABIS 2017 is inclusive. In fact, they even gave away 200-300 tickets to people who cannot afford the tickets so that they’ll be given opportunities to connect and learn.

There was a question about finding a way to expedite business registrations and I’m glad they’re looking into it with New Zealand as the benchmark who processes business registrations for only a few minutes while our very own country Philippines processes business registrations for 30 days.

As the organizers wrap up the event, the panelist sent the same message. They said that we should strive our best to post positive stuff about our country. I’m glad that the private sector is urging us to send positive messages. I guess we need it. Our country needs a lot of positivity so that we get more foreign investments and urge more entrepreneurs to invest in the Philippines.