Chairman's Reporting
Year Ending 2009
Chairman’s Annual Report
for the Year Ending December 2009
 Welcome to the 35th Annual General Meeting of the Chamber. It is a pleasure to see so many of you returning from our last AGM and, I hope, that this is a reflection of your satisfaction with BritCham over the last year. I shall now present to you a somewhat shorter than usual Chairman’s Annual Report. I mean it this time.
I am going to concentrate on the Chamber and not enter into a long dissertation on economic or political happenings. However, we have recently seen encouraging signs on the political side ranging from the Tax Office clean up to the signing of the Jakarta Declaration two weeks ago. While we did not see President Obama in April, we do expect that he will be here before too long and I hope this will prompt some much needed stimulus in some areas. Furthermore, the government’s plan for $150 billion on infrastructure development in the next 5 years should yield some exciting new projects and stimulate the economy. Private investment is still what we need and that is where we have a role to play.
The Board, who I’m honoured to represent, comes from most sectors of the business community and has, individually and collectively, huge reserves of wisdom and experience to offer anecdotal advice to new investors and existing members. This is where we can back UKTI, professionally driven by Debbie Clarke and the Embassy. BritCham board membership can be a strain on the available limited time of senior businessmen and it is with regret that at this time we must part company with Bapak Nana Sutresna, Jody Dharmawan, NarindER Arora and Jeremy Kemp. We as a board would like to thank them for their service. Particularly Jody who has been on the board a good ten years. We must also pay tribute to the sterling efforts of Gary Andrews for his services as executive director and recently as Hon. Secretary. He has moved to the Middle East. David Knowles has kindly stepped in to cover this meeting and the appointment of a new Hon Sec will be the task of the board at their next meeting. Our Hon. Treasurer, John Slack, also merits special mention for time and devotion to the finances over several years and he is staying. Our executive office is a strong, busy and more stable environment of late although there have been changes over the year. This has enabled the smooth running of the Chamber and helped with consistency and increased volume of service.
I am pleased to report on the Chamber’s activities over the last year. We hosted 98 events in 2009 comprised of Business and Social gatherings, joint Euro lunches, sector group meetings, expos, cross sector conferences, seminars, workshops and the Cushman & Wakefield Breakfast Briefings. Collectively these events attracted over 3500 people, which is a considerable figure. These events helped to manage the financial stability of the chamber and also contribute to the BritCham Community portfolio ‘Giving Kids a Sporting chance’. We closed the year with 150 corporate members and 64 individual members including honorary life members. Our oldest and most distinguished member Past Chairman H Wibowo OBE who will celebrate his 90th birthday next month. Our current and influential sector groups are Food, Forestry &Agriculture, Energy and Human Resources. Newly established groups include SMEs, Membership, Events and Communication. Meanwhile the Manufacturing & Retail and Infrastructure groups are about to revive themselves. ‘Giving Kids A Sporting Chance’ combined football and cricket activities involving 1250 children. We were invited into a scoping mission with the British Olympic Committee looking at Indonesia as a beneficiary of British commitment to a legacy of sport for youth after the London Olympics 2012.
Several members have been heavily committed to working with Kadin and Government this year and we had the honour to hold discussions with The President, Coordinating Minister Hatta Rajasa, Ministers Sri Mulyani, M Hidayat, BKPM Chairman Gita Wiryawan and others. We believe that your chambers involvement with the Government with regard to solving problems you all experience is strong and growing. Another task we consider important is to draw together the factions from Europe including the other bilaterals and Eurocham to support the inward investment we consider a paramount duty to members and future investors. We have represented members along with The Embassy at problem presentations to the Ministers and have a central role in the team for the ‘European Union Indonesian Business Dialogue’ which starts in earnest in November. Board and sector members represent us at IBC, Eurocham, Kadin and other meetings.
Our sponsorship has grown and the chamber as a whole greatly appreciates the inputs and support from you all. Update magazine is well supported and advertising levels indicate the members’ approval but we are always glad of new ideas and articles. The web site is running well and is a good resource for communications.
We are again looking at our objectives:
- Growing the impact of our networking and seminar meetings.
- Increasing our membership.
- Establishing communication lines with UK Chambers to sell ‘investment into Indonesia’. A joint delegation visit with Kadin in 2012 is planned.
- Seeking ways to fund expansions to grow our activities and maybe branch into fast growing cities of Indonesia.
- Become a positive and respected force in the business community
To quote Winston Churchill “It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required”. It is with this ethos that we, the board, intend to proceed through 2010 and into 2011 in order to fulfill our role of meeting your needs.
I would like to close by thanking you all again, and particularly the hard working, long suffering board for giving your time and support to BritCham.
Malcolm Llewellyn – Chairman |
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