Photos from MIDA Delegation and Blue Gulabi Dinner

The MIDA Delegation visit earlier this week was a great success.  Thank you to all those who participated, and also to all our members who supported the networking dinner on Monday night.  We had a great turnout of almost 30 people - it was a wonderfully warm and friendly reception for our guests.  Special thanks of course to Gomerthy of the Blue Gulabi for allowing us to use her restaurant and organising the catering so quickly.  The Blue Gulabi is located at 803 Stanley Street Wooloongabba (there is parking underneath the Coles shopping centre).

 

Jerome, Clem and Kiong



Rose, Bee Vian and Azian from MIDA, KL and Sim



Everyone enjoying the food and networking at the Blue Gulabi

Gomerthy, AMBCQ member and owner of the Blue Gulabi, with Kiong

The MIDA team - Bee Vian, Azian, and Norzita from KL, with Consul Khairdduin, Director MIDA Sydney

The MIDA team visiting SJCM, Cleveland

MIDA Delegation: Dinner at Blue Gulabi 22 November 2010

As a follow-up to Minister Mustapa Mohamad, Malaysian Minister for International Trade and Industry's visit in early October, MIDA sent a team of experts from its headquarters to meet local Queensland businesses looking at investing in Malaysia.  The team were accompanied by Consul Khairuddin, Director MIDA for Australia and the Pacfic, who came up from Sydney to meet them, as well as our own AMBCQ President, Kiong Chan.  The group arrived on Sunday night and have met with a number of businesses over the last few days in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast.  Consul Khairuddin and the team will be flying on to Sydney this evening to do more follow-up meetings in Sydney. 

The AMBCQ hosted a networking dinner event with the group on Monday evening, at the Blue Gulabi, owned by our AMBCQ member and supporter, Gomerthy Chendi.  Gomerthy and her staff put on a wonderful Malaysian inspired dinner, with curry, rendang, pickle, and other dishes.  Many members and supporters were very keen to talk to and connect with the team, and we had a good turn out of over 30 people.  Thank you to all those who supported the event.  Given that it is so close to the Christmas season, and there are many other commitments and demands on everyone's time, it was great to have this strong turnout for our Malaysian guests, and also help raise some money for the AMBCQ coffers. 

Thank you very much to Kiong and Consul Khairuddin for doing the groundwork to prepare these meetings, and also many thanks to Gomerthy for putting on such a great dinner at very short notice.

Event catch-up:11 November 2010

There has been a lot going on over the past month since the Malaysian Trade Minister's visit to Brisbane.  This is a short summary of events.

16th October 2010: Butterfly Ball

The annual Butterfly Ball was held at the Hilton with Sami Lukas as the MC and a special performance by Katie Noonan.  The Butterfly Ball raises money for the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital BRAIN project (Brain Reseach Advances in Newborns) and it was a very moving night.  We had four members of AMBCQ attend, and some of our supporters are heavily involved in the Butterfly Ball, including our AMBCQ patron Dr Peter Yeoh OAM and his wife Alice.  To find out more about the BRAIN project click here: http://www.rbwhbutterflyball.com/brain_project.html

19^th October 2010: Meeting at DFAT Headquarters with DFAT and Malaysian negotiation team re MAFTA

Kiong was invited by AMBC National to participate in this round of negotiations which were taking place in Canberra.  There were several dozen senior Australian DFAT, Malaysian MITI and industry representatives in attendance.  While in Canberra, he also caught up with several diplomats and other contacts. 

26th October 2010: Premier's Deepavali Celebrations

Shaeed, Aashmita, Lai Peng and Kim



Shaeed, Aashmita, Gomerty, Mandy, Jerome, Lai Peng, Shona with Ilkka and Lilian with Ilmi



AMBCQ was invited to participate in the Premier's Deepavali Celebrations for the Indian community, which was held on the Speaker's Green at Parliament.  We were invited to put forward some names, and about 20 of our members and supporters attended the function.  It was quite a big turnout, of several hundred in attendance and it was a nice evening to catch up with many contacts in other organisations.  The function was also attended by the Indian High Commissioner. 

27th October 2010: Inaugural Australia-Japan Annual Dialogue with Hon Alexander Downer and His Excellency Mr Shigekazu Sato, Japanese Ambassador to Australia

We were very lucky to be invited along to this function by Elfi Massey-Valazza and John Massey of the Australian Council for Europe.  Although it was nominally regarding Japan-Australia relations, the two speakers did touch on many regional and international issues, especially regarding the rise of China and the perception that China-Australian relations have been elevated to the detriment of many other relations.  It was also very interesting to see the trade figures for Asia put into perspective. 

30th October to 2nd November 2010: Trip to Malaysia

Kiong had a short trip to Malaysia, which was supported by AirAsia.  He caught up with many important contacts while in Malaysia, including MIDA and MATrade officials, MABC, journalists, and AirAsia.

4^th November 2010: AMBCNSW Information evening in Sydney. 

AMBCNSW organised a special hook-up with the Australian High Commission in KL.  The event was in a way intended to relaunch AMBCNSW which has been low key for sometime.  There was a good turnout of about 20 people, and Kiong gave a presentation, as did Consul Khairuddin from MIDA.  We also agreed later on to organise some joint AMBCQ/AMBC NSW events in Sydney, starting with perhaps either a Christmas function or Chinese New Year, or both.  Khairuddin has agreed to the use his office for any AMBC functions to support the branch.

6th November 2010: Deepavali Celebrations with the Tamil Association of Qld


Rose, Debra, Lai Peng, Amelia, John-Paul, Kiong and Dr Nava




There were about 800 people in the crowd!  They had to turn away a couple of hundred.

 As we do each year, we joined our friends in the Tamil Assoc for their annual Deepavali celebrations.  Over 800 people were at the event this year (apparently they had to turn away another 200 who wanted to attend).  AMBCQ had two tables at the event and we hosted Cr Julian Simmonds, the newly elected Brisbane City Councillor for Walter Taylor Ward. 

1st October 2010: Ministerial visit by Dato' Sri Mustapa Mohd, Malaysian Minister for International Trade and Investment

I am afraid things have been very busy for us this last month and I have not updated the blog as often as I should.  The most significant event of course was the Ministerial visit by Dato' Sri Mustapa Mohamed, the Malaysian Trade Minister.  Below is the email that Kiong sent to all AMBCQ members after the event.
__________________________________________

Dear AMBCQ colleagues,

Following from the Minister’s and AMBC National’s joint Business Roundtable Meeting and AMBC Luncheon in Sydney (Wednesday 29th September), I am happy to let you know that Minister Mustapa Mohamed’s joint AMBCQ Brisbane Business Roundtable Meeting (Friday 1st October) was a great success. As you know, I was greatly privileged to be invited to co-chair the meeting with Minister Mustapa. The Minister appeared very happy and volunteered to stay much longer than he originally intended. During the meeting, the Minister said that he was delighted with AMBCQ’s explanations on why Malaysia was THE place to go for business and investment, and asked if he could have a copy of my notes, which I later provided to him via his Senior Private Secretary. All the senior Malaysian government officials were delighted with the great success of the Brisbane Roundtable Meeting.

I was also very surprised and greatly honoured to be invited for a second (unscheduled) one-on-one private meeting and tea with the Minister after the conclusion of the Roundtable Meeting. The Minister’s aides and various officials informed me that this was not the usual practice, and that it signalled that the Minister was extremely pleased.

The roundtable meeting lasted till 10.30, 30 minutes more than originally planned. I left the venue at 11.15am, after the second private meeting with Minister Mustapa, and following farewells and well wishes to officials etc. Several times during both the one-on-one meetings the Minister pledged to provide strong support for AMBCQ, and he also emphasised this to his departmental staff.

Minister Mustapa also informed his staff that he regarded the activities that have been carried out in Queensland as ‘National Service’, a point he made in both the one-on-one meetings and in the roundtable meeting. I agreed to continue to collaborate very closely with him and with MITI, MIDA and Matrade.

The success of the meeting did not come by accident. The three weeks of planning and organising that took place prior to the Roundtable meeting was meticulous. It was carried out through three places:

• MIDA’s office in Sydney
• AMBCQ’s Secretariat in Brisbane (as per AMBC convention the state secretariat is provided by the state president’s firm, in Queensland’s case via Paradigm Infinitum)
• MIDA’s Temporary Secretariat in Brisbane (run by Jaswant Singh who flew in from KL and the MIDA team at Marriott Hotel Brisbane)

The Minister had requested to meet with firms from a very specific and narrow list of industries. Consul Khairuddin, Shona and I had done a great deal of research to identify suitable candidates for the meeting. All three of us then vetted each one of the firms, and issued invitations, organised follow-ups and requested confirmations. Shona and I spoke to all of the invitees, and even drove around to met with several attendees in Brisbane and the Gold Coast in the two weeks prior to the meeting to ensure that AMBCQ understood the position and the interests of all attendees in order to maximise the effectiveness of the Roundtable Meeting. AMBCQ had put an enormous amount of effort into the Minister’s visit, and I appreciate Shona’s efforts in the last three weeks - all the late nights and long hours has paid off.

I am very happy that the event was very successful. Due credit must go to MIDA, MITI, Matrade and in particular to our close friends and colleagues in MIDA - Jaswant Singh and Ahmad Khairuddin Abdul Rahim, and the permanent and temporary staff of MIDA and Matrade for all the work that has been done.

To those AMBCQ members whose firms met the requirements specified by MITI for the meeting, and were consequently able to be at the meeting – William Tan, Yvette Baxter, Damien Foong and Tamara Foong (through Veronica Parkin and Karl Sawyer), Clem Grehan, Shona Leppänen-Gibson, Lucas Follbring and John-Paul Langbroek (and his staffer Kevin Martin), thank you very much.

Hopefully this will lead to greater Ministerial activity in Queensland.

Kind regards,

Kiong