In compliance with the Government’s SOP to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, AGM 2021 was conducted on 23 September 2021 by way of virtual meeting and online remote voting. We are pleased to provide a summary of events below.
The meeting opened with a special recorded message from HE Charles Hay, the British High Commissioner to Malaysia, who commended the BMCC for serving our members extremely well. The BMCC was also acknowledged for helping to secure GBP16.4 million of export business since the beginning of April 2021, and for enthusiastically supporting the British High Commission (BHC)‘s efforts to engage business on the climate crisis in conjunction with the upcoming COP26 to be co-hosted by the UK this month.
On trade and investment, His Excellency emphasised that the Indo-Pacific region is the heart of the UK government’s approach to foreign policy. This is well evidenced by the UK becoming ASEAN’s first new dialogue partner in 25 years. His Excellency also said the UK remains committed to growing trade and investment further in Malaysia. To date, 100 UK companies have been granted MSC status, and while UK business interest in the market is holding up well, especially in the tax and education sectors with significant volumes of business won, it is important for the BHC and the BMCC to continue encouraging UK exporters to enter the market. His Excellency ended his message with a note of thanks to retiring BMCC Board members.
Following His Excellency’s message, BMCC Chairman Abrar A. Anwar officiated the opening of the AGM and presented an overview of the Chamber’s performance in 2020. Despite the tough year, the Chamber was able to retain about 82% of existing members in 2020, an increase comparative to 75% in 2019, ending the year with 48 Sterling Members.
While the COVID-19 pandemic derailed a large number of the BMCC’s intended plans, we managed to pivot and navigate our way forward. By moving our work online, the BMCC was able to remain active during this period, putting our focus on three areas of priority: (1) Member Engagement; (2) Business Continuity; and, (3) Industry Advocacy & Government Relations. During the challenging times, the Chamber increased our member engagement activities as our top priority in order to help us understand and respond to members’ needs better.
The Chamber’s role as the collective voice of the business community for government engagement was heightened during the pandemic and we were kept busy with industry advocacy in the interest of our members for much of the year.
A total of 45 out 48 programmes for the year were organised digitally, including webinars, roundtables, forums and conference. We also successfully pulled off our inaugural digital conference, the BMCC-Standard Chartered Bank: Virtual Green Conference 2020, which attracted close to 300 participants and featured the Finance Minister of Malaysia as a special guest speaker.
The BMCC’s trade services team continued to meet its commitment as the delivery partner for the Department for International Trade, UK, facilitating more than 200 meetings with British exporters.
For more of 2020 highlights, please refer to the BMCC Annual Report.
During the Board elections that took place at the AGM, four Board members were re-elected and three new members joined the Board.
Abrar A. Anwar, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Bhd, was re-elected as Chairman for a second term. Andrew Diamond, CEO, Asset Data Solutions Sdn Bhd and Nik Tasha Nik Kamaruddin, Senior General Manager (Group Brand Marketing & Communications), Sunway Berhad, were also re-elected as Deputy Chairman and Treasurer respectively for another term. Prof. Dr Mushtak Al-Atabi joins the officer bearers as thesecond Deputy Chair.
Long-standing Board members, Dato’ Larry Gan and David Ng ended their term at the AGM. The BMCC would also like to thank Dato’ Larry and David for their invaluable contributions to the Chamber during their Board tenure.
More information on the new Board line-up here.
