The 2nd Members’ Briefing for the year took place yesterday at the Sheraton Hotel Petaling Jaya. This time around, we decided to move the venue to Petaling Jaya to allow members based within that vicinity to have the opportunity to attend the briefing.
The main highlights of this briefing were COVID-19 and the new government changes in Malaysia. Siobhan Das, Executive Director of AMCHAM provided an update on what’s happening at the Chamber.Programs and meetings are going on as usual, however, we are taking the necessary precautionary measures to keep the Chamber safe for members when attending meetings and events.
AMCHAM members were given the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns regarding these two major issues amongst others and can definitely look forward to upcoming dialogues surrounding these issues in the near future.
Dennis A. Simmons, Foreign Service Officer & Commercial Diplomat, and Rebecca Owen, Deputy Economic Counsellor from the U.S Embassy to Malaysia provided an update on what’s happening at the embassy as well as Washington. It is business as usual despite the outbreak of COVID-19. There aren’t any travel bans imposed at the moment. However, companies are being advised to hold off any non-essential travel pertaining to conferences, training, etc.
Members also had the opportunity to network after the event and it was nice to see some “new faces” and new members as well. The next Members’ Briefing is tentatively scheduled to take place on April 1st at the AMCHAM Executive Office.
If you have any questions regarding the Covid-19, please call the hotline numbers listed below or email at [email protected]
If you’re a U.S. citizen, we urge you to enrol in the Smart Traveller Enrolment Program (https://step.state.gov/step/– STEP) to receive alerts. For the most up-to-date information, please consult the https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/
American Citizens, please take note of the following:
U.S. Embassy Kuala Lumpur
Phone number: +603-2168-5000
Email address: [email protected]
Embassy website: https://my.usembassy.gov
State Department – Consular Affairs
888-407-4747 or 202-501-4444
If you have any questions, feel free to drop us an email at info@amcham.com.my
The Coronavirus continues to affect travel and consumer sectors in Southeast Asia. It is even predicted that the effects could last for months. AMCHAM brought together experts, Gary Bowerman, Founder of Check-In Asia, Hannah Pearson, Director of Pear Anderson, and Philip See, CEO of FlyFirefly Sdn Bhd to discuss the travel sector in detail.
The discussions covered the overall state of the coronavirus thus far, how air travel and tourism industries have been affected, and what course of action would be best given the current state. The outbreak is having a significant impact on business, investment, consumer confidence; and government policies and the anticipated stimulus package were addressed along with mitigation efforts being undertaken to adjust to reduced usage and occupancy rates.
Attendees were encouraged to take advantage of the downtime, to relook at their marketing strategy, consider training opportunities for staff to enhance their level of skills, experiment with strategies and ideas while the impact could be managed: fail fast and learn.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the attendees for their participation despite the current situation.
On March 5th, 2020, AMCHAM had Mr. Faroze Nadar, Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact, Malaysia over for an in-depth talk on the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to the private sector, factors to consider when developing effective SDGs strategies and how to provide a measurement of it. For members seeking to design and develop corporate sustainability strategies, this was a great session to discover techniques and methods that can be utilised for best, measurable outcomes to those strategies.
On the 4th of March, 2020, AMCHAM held the very first event for young professionals under the age of 35, within the AMCHAM membership. This first entry was about “Getting To Know Your Net Worth”.
The seminar featured two distinguished speakers. The first speaker was Mr. Chuah Wee Kee, Head of Investment Specialist & Treasury Sales at Citibank Bhd. He spoke about personal finances and how to invest wisely, suggesting different kinds of approaches to investing that would best suit the investor. He also gave light into what are the pitfalls to be wary of when investing.
The second speaker, Mr. Soh Lian Seng, Partner, Tax Dispute Resolution (TDR) and Executive Director of KPMG, spoke on the topic of getting to know your net worth, what goes into determining one’s own net worth and how tax authorities check on accuracy.
Overall the kick-off for the young professionals’ program was successful. The group of young individuals that attended was happy to get to know AMCHAM and were all eager to see what’s coming up next for them.
