The President's Report 2023

President’s Report 2022/2023 –
AMBC Victoria Annual General Meeting on 29 August 2023

It’s been my absolute honour to lead AMBC Victoria for another year. We have had high levels of member engagement, a flurry of events and activities across a range of sectors and good partnerships and support from the Victorian and Malaysian government stakeholders.

We have seen renewed interest in the AMBC as companies and organisations pivot towards Southeast Asia as a place to do business.

Events

I am pleased to report that we conducted a number of events for the benefit of our members and network over the last 12 months, including:

- AGM and Networking Drinks at HLB Mann Judd (23 Aug 2022)
- Malaysia Day Celebration Dinner 2022 at the Melbourne Marriott Hotel (15 Sep 2022)
- Seminar: Designing and Delivering Successful Childcare Developments, hosted by Moray & Agnew (9 Nov 2022)
- Business Networking and End of Year Event (8 Dec 2022)
- Annual Yum Cha in Chinatown (2 Feb 2023)
- Economic Update Seminar with Martin Lakos, co-hosted by Macpherson Kelley (22 Feb 2023)
- AMBC Womens High Tea Event (30 Mar 2023)
- Seminar: Impacts and Opportunities - Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT, co-hosted by Executive Wealth Circle (1 Jun 2023)
- Adiladha Gathering, partnered with OSK Property (7 Jul 2023)
- Capital Inflow into the Australian Real Estate Market, co-hosted by Australasia Property Advisory Association (26 Jul 2023)

Contribution and engagement of Council with industry and government

In addition, we were able to contribute to and participate in the following events and meetings:

- On 6 September 2022 I represented AMBC Victoria at a Global Victoria networking dinner focused on promoting Victorian exporters
- On 28 September 2022, board members Josh Chye, Ken Ong OAM and I conducted a roundtable discussion with a delegation from the Malaysian Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities
- On 6 December 2022, I presented at a webinar 'Venturing into the Australian Market' on the topic of Business and Investment Opportunities between Australia and Malaysia, organised by MATRADE aimed at Malaysian investors
- On 6 December 2022, I represented AMBC Victoria at the Multicultural Business Forum presented by Victorian Multicultural Commission in partnership with Business Victoria
- On 9 February 2023, Vice President Josh Chye and I represented AMBC Victoria at the Asialink Business Luncheon Roundtable 'Australia and ASEAN in 2023 and Beyond' with HE Will Nankervis, Australian Ambassador to ASEAN
- On 4 April 2023, I represented AMBC Victoria at the Launch of the Asialink Business Academy encompassing discussion on Australia's Success in Asia, From Rhetoric to Reality
- On 4 April 2023, Vice President Josh Chye and I met with and welcomed the new Consul General of Malaysia to Melbourne, Mr Nik Muhammad Nasyron Syah bin Nik Daud
- On 3 May 2023, Vice President Josh Chye and I met with a delegation from Invest Selangor. They were here in Melbourne to promote the Selangor International Business Summit in October 2023
- On 20 June 2023, several board members attended a dinner organised by a delegation from TalentCorp.

In February we saw the departure of Ms Mazita Marzuki, Consul General of Malaysia to Melbourne as she took up the role of High Commissioner to New Zealand. I had the pleasure of speaking at her farewell high tea on 17 February 2023.

Membership of AMBC Victoria has increased since last year with 53 total members consisting of individual, SME, company, corporate and life members.  Rebuilding membership was a focus over the last two years which we are now seeing occur, in addition to greater member engagement.

Business Victoria Grant

In late 2022, we were the successful recipients of a grant from the Victorian Government to develop and deliver a number of events to benefit our members and the business community. We utilised this grant to assist us in running 4 of the events listed above, namely the Childcare Development Seminar (9 November 2022), our Business Networking and End of Year Event (8 December 2022), the Economic Update Seminar (22 February 2023) and Women’s High Tea (30 March 2023). The events were a success and we are grateful to Business Victoria for their partnership and assistance.

What’s next?

Over the next 12 months we will continue to run our regular series of events and our work as a conduit between industry and government in both countries.

Due to the success of our Ladies’ Breakfast and Women’s High Tea events, we anticipate running more events and activities with a focus on women in industry. We are already in planning stages for an event in October so please watch our events space.

This year marks a significant milestone for AMBC Victoria as we celebrate our 50th anniversary. On 14 September 2023, we will be celebrating both Malaysia Day and AMBC Victoria’s 50th anniversary at one of Melbourne’s iconic venues, the Arts Centre Melbourne. We hope you can join us for this special occasion.
AMBC Victoria is proud to be the supporting association at the PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards (Australia) which will be held on 13 October 2023.

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful and would like to thank all board members for their service and support of the Council again this year. We are a volunteer board and I am always so impressed at how professional and hardworking my colleagues are.
They dedicate many hours of their time to support the Council and are what has driven us to be such a dynamic and successful organisation. I have been well supported by Vice President Josh Chye, Trevor Haines as Treasurer and Public Officer and Executive Board Members Meileng Tam, Shok Kuan Ho, Ken Ong OAM, Steven Leong and David Klingberg. David was nominated and joined the board at our AGM in 2022.

After 4 years Meileng steps down from the board at our 2023 AGM. She leaves some big shoes to fill and we will be thanking her in style at our Gala Dinner next month.

In April 2023 we farewelled our Secretariat, Christine Rutter-Strangward who retired. Chris served for seven years and is enjoying her well-earned retirement. Thank you Chris for your hard work and dedication. And for leaving the AMBC administration in great shape!

I would especially like to thank our new Secretariat, Mavis Tan, who took over seamlessly from Chris. I’m sure the board will agree that Mavis has been fantastic and a tremendous support to us, going above and beyond in keeping the Council running behind the scenes as well as winning praise all round from our partner organisations.

Thank you to our partners and the government arms with whom we work, in particular Austrade, MATRADE, Global Victoria, Business Victoria, Malaysia Airlines and EZ Magazine. Also thank you to the organisations with whom we have co-hosted events this year: Executive Wealth Circle, OSK Property and the Australasia Property Advisory Association. Also, a special acknowledgement to the International Council of Malaysian Scholars (ICMS), a student organisation who regularly volunteer at our events.

And most importantly, a big thank you to our members. None of our successes would have happened if it were not for your participation and financial support of the Council. I encourage you to re-join and to continue engage with the Council to share your ideas and shape our future.

Yours sincerely,

Nathanael Kitingan
President

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