 More
than half of the world's population lives in the
Asia Pacific region. Not
only that, Asia Pacific continues to be the worlds fastest
growing region.
In
short, the world is converging on the region and AGN
is well placed to
assist in this process. Your clients will no doubt already
know the first
two points I make.
As
the newly elected Chairman of the APAC region, my first
priority was to
assess what resources and skills AGN possesses in the
region.
Disseminating
the results to all AGN members (and the general public)
is the
major focus for the next few months. The news, I
am pleased to say, is that
there are considerable resources and know how on
hand.
However,
our work here is far from done. Getting the message across,
and
possibly taking the mystique out of doing business
in certain Asia Pacific
countries is our biggest challenge.
There
has been considerable momentum for AGN in the APAC region
in the last
four months. The various committees have recently
met and have set their
course of action for the 2006 calendar year.
The Directors of the APAC
region have also met and I am pleased to say
that we are committed to
show-casing the skills and our collective know how.
Taking
a leaf out of our North American and European compatriots'
playbook, we will be stepping up the intensity.
Opening
up the region by illuminating how business can get part
of the
action,
without undue risk is our first project.
We already have many
success stories
under our belt involving helping
European and US
(and
several Australian businesses) successfully
do business in China.
We
will be exploring utilising internet facilities to make
it easier to get
basic information about a country. One
of the ideas we are working on is
developing a "Top 5 Tips" — for
some of the countries traditionally regarded
as tricky, including China.
We
recognize that doing business in China is a moving feast
so publishing a
definitive guide is not feasible. Really,
China is more a vast conglomerate
of multiple regions, so we will be
accommodating this. We will be able
to
keep members and clients up
to speed with the subtleties and nuances
of
successfully starting a business and
succeeding in China, wherever they
decide, but more importantly be able to provide sensible commercial assistance.
We
realise there are also significant opportunities in Cambodia
and Vietnam.
Whilst some of us have clients already
there, we do not currently have an
AGN member. That will be another
focus to remedy this.
The
tax landscape continues to improve in a number of countries,
making
it
easier and easier for foreign businesses,
most notably (as it has had some
catching up) Australia has become
truly competitive (especially for
non
residents) to base their Asian
business headquarters from.
In
short, we recognize the importance of the region to AGN
and we are
marching forward on building
a compelling brand for AGN in
this
region and
indeed
throughout the world.
We
look forward to working with all of you and explaining
the
specifics of
the good work. I would very
much appreciate hearing from
any of
you with
your thoughts on this process.
David Kenney
Hall Chadwick
Sydney, Australia
dkenney@hallchadwick.com.au
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