APCA ’99 took place between 25th to 27th October 1999 in the Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel. The event was supported by the Malaysian External Trade Development Co-operation (“MATRADE”) and EXIM Bank Malaysia Berhad (“EXIM Bank”) and Malaysian Airlines was the official Airline.
APCA has THC International Sdn Bhd, in particular Mr. Asghar Mehdi, to thank for taking the lead role in APCA 2000, which saw 70 delegates taking part.
MALAYSIAN SPEAKERS
We were fortunate to have Puan Roosme Hamzah and En. Mohd Zaiman Mohd Nor of the Government Procurement Management Division of the Ministry of Finance and Bank Negara, Malaysia respectively to articulate on the Offset Program for government procurement and the Bilateral Payment Arrangement of the Malaysian government. The speech of Datuk Mohamed Saleh bin Mohd on “Malaysian Banks and Trade Financing” was ably delivered on his behalf by En. Yaakob Masir, the General Manager of EXIM Bank. “Malaysian Experience in International Trade” was delivered by Dato’ Dr. Haji Murad bin Ahmad, Vice President, Malay Chamber of Commerce.
INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS
The international speakers who spoke were Mr. David Hew, Consultant and Secretary General, APCA, reporting on the findings of experts meeting organised by UNCTAD in Geneva on structured finance; Mr. Maarten van Alkemade. Vice President, Structured Finance, G. Premjee Group, Bangkok who spoke on “A Structured Finance Case Study”; Mr. Kit Brownlee, Chairman, AON Group Ltd United Kingdom who spoke on “How to secure Transaction Risk and Country Risk”; Dr. Christoph Kamm, Executive Vice President, ABB Structured Finance, Switzerland and President, APCA who spoke on “Global Prospective of Future International Offsets and Countertrade”; Ms Anna-Greta Mikaelsson, Head of Offset, FMV, Defence Material Administration, Sweden who spoke on “The Swedish Offset Model: An Instrument for Defence and Industrial Policy” and Mr. Malcolm Taylor, Director, Newcourt Capital, who spoke on “Offset and Investment Banking -–A Natural Linkage”. Mr. Stefan Moser, Director, Offset and Industrial Co-operation, Daimler Chrysler Aerospace AG, Germany who was unable to be with us had his slides on “Trends in European Aerospace Industries and their effects on International Offset Program” presented by Dr. Christoph Kamm.
CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES
The conference activities included the usual half-day city tour followed by the opening ceremony cum cocktail in the evening. The Malaysian keynote address was delivered by the Chief Executive Officer of MATRADE, En Mohammed Ab. Halim. The event concluded with a poolside buffet on the evening of the last day.
Throughout the cocktail and the plenary sessions of the conference, a hands-on static display of a beta version of APCA’s new web-site and trade matching service known as “TradeMatching” was made available.
BILATERAL MEETINGS
APCA has taken note of the requests for the number of and time allotted to speakers to be cut down and for more time to be given for bilateral meetings and business match-making. This will be implemented from APCA 2000 onwards.
ASSOCIATION’S NAME
A point has been raised as to whether the word “Countertrade” in our Association’s name may not reflect the two other areas of interest of the Association, namely Offset and Structured Finance. Your opinion is therefore sought on the two points below.
Point 1: Whether to use the acronym “APCA” only for all purposes and the words “Industrial Co-operation” (instead of Offset), “Structured Finance and Countertrade” to substitute “Asia Pacific Countertrade Association” in the Association’s get-up. This involving merely a change in the Association’s get-up without resulting in a change in the Association’s name and therefore what “APCA” stands for.
Point 2: In addition to point 1 above, whether the word “Countertrade” in the Association’s name should be substituted and if so how. A suggested substitution for example, is to replace it with the word “Co-operation”, such that the name reads as “Asia Pacific Co-operation Association” thereby keeping intact the acronym “APCA”. This involves a formal change of name and would require a formal process and approval from the Singapore Registry of Society.
Your Secretariat will be grateful to receive your feedback on whether to proceed with (by way of your ticking the relevant box below and faxing this page back to us):
Point 1 alone, without involving a change in the Association’s name, OR
Points 1 and 2 involving a formal change (if so, please suggest a word to substitute “countertrade” starting with the alphabet “c” here [C ] ), OR
Keeping status quo.
We invite any further written comments that members may have.
APCA 2000
APCA 2000 will take place in Sun City, South Africa between August 30 to September 2, 2000 as a companion event of the Africa Aerospace and Defence Exposition 2000, which will held between September 5 to 9, 2000, to enhance the benefits and opportunities in APCA 2000.
YOUR SECRETARIAT WISHES EVERYONE MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW MILLENNIUM.