From left to right in the picture:
Jan De Silva President & CEO of the Toronto Region Board of Trade
David Armitage PBEC Board of Director & CEO Velocity Solutions Group
Mairead Lavery President and CEO of Export Development Canada (EDC)
Stephen Lund CEO of Toronto Global
Jakarta, Indonesia. February 27th 2023 – The PBEC attended the first Canada-ASEAN Business Forum since the pandemic on the 24-25th February held in Jakarta, Indonesia. Represented by PBEC board of director David Armitage the Founder and CEO of Velocity Solutions Group, this forum hosted and organised by CABC saw ministers, business leaders and experts on investment, energy, sustainability, food security and more in attendance. This was the biggest business event held for the Canadian private sector in ASEAN to date with over 300+ attendees.
ASEAN is currently Canada’s fourth largest merchandise trading partner at USD31.6 Billion. At the ASEAN Annual summit last November 2022 in Cambodia, PM Trudeau announced USD24.1 Million to establish the Canadian Trade Gateway in Southeast Asia and a USD13.1 Million contribution to the ASEAN-Canada Plan of Action Trust Fund to help close development gaps, ensure strong regional engagement with ASEAN, and advance negotiations toward a Canada-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement.
Indonesia after successfully hosting and chairing the G20 in 2022, took over the chair of ASEAN for 2023 and is focused on navigating ASEAN to be the future epicentre of global growth. This year they are focused on the following bold principal, “ASEAN Centrality: Innovating towards Greater Inclusivity.”
The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) fully supported this forum and claimed it is ready to become the entry point and facilitate potential Canadian investors who wish to invest in Indonesia, particularly in terms of sustainable development in Indonesia.
This was clearly stated by Deputy Chairperson for Transportation Denon Prawiraatmadja at the Canada-ASEAN Business & Investment Forum 2023 in a discussion session with the theme ‘Sustainable Finance and Infrastructure Development’.
“Currently Canada is trying to participate in this development. Therefore Kadin Indonesia can be the entry point and liaison for potential investors from Canada to be able to invest in the field of Sustainable Infrastructure,” said Denon in a written statement, quoted on Sunday (26th February 2023).
“It was well worth my trip down from Hong Kong to attend this face to face by invitation only business& investor focused event. I’d like to thank CABC for organising this event and for PBEC asking me to represent them. It was an opportunity to catch with many of my fellow Canadian business and industry folks I hadn’t seen in person since before the pandemic, but equally it was fruitful to make new connections, especially with our counterparts in Indonesia and hear what they had to say. Its an important period for bilateral and multi-lateral relations in the region, and its encouraging to see Canada’s Government playing their part now more seriously through meaningful engagement and working towards new free trade agreement initiatives with ASEAN economies individually and as a bloc. I am bullish despite the multiple geopolitical challenges being faced right now, that cross-border trade & investments will prevail, and that APEC economies typically always find ways to continue and agree mutually beneficial ways to collaborate and facilitate open and free trade that allow businesses to flourish and encourage sustainable development, something that PBEC strongly advocated for.” stated David Armitage PBEC Board of Director.