On Thursday 18 June 2020, EuroCham held its Extraordinary and Annual General Meeting in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The event had been postponed since March due to COVID-19. It gathered over 300 EuroCham members, and featured as special guest speaker the Head of the EU Delegation to Vietnam, Ambassador Giorgio Aliberti. Mr Aliberti updated EuroCham members about the ratification of the EVFTA and its imminent implementation. The members approved changes to the chamber’s statutes; the minutes of the AGM 2019; the Auditor’s Report 2019; the budget for 2020; and the auditor 2020 (please see the results HERE). Members also voted in a new Executive Committee.
The event heard updates from EuroCham’s nine affiliated Business Associations and provincial chapters. EuroCham board members presented a detailed report on the chamber’s activities in 2019-20. Highlights included EuroCham’s engagement on the EVFTA, culminating in its ratification after positive votes in the European Parliament and in Vietnam’s National Assembly. The chamber appeared in around 600 media articles in 2019-20 and increased membership to 1,072. It held a wide range of events in Hanoi and HCMC, as well as co-ordination meetings with Business Associations. Furthermore, it saw the renewal of the SEA IPR SME Helpdesk project. EuroCham also continued to strengthen its advocacy work, growing its number of Sector Committees to 17, increasing the level of engagement with Vietnamese authorities, and holding multiple high-level Government meetings including with the Prime Minister of Vietnam.
Through an audited ballot, a quorum of EuroCham members elected the new Executive Committee. These directly-elected candidates will serve for one term (following changes to the EuroCham statues reducing the length of the term of office) and will join nominated representatives from EuroCham’s affiliated Business Associations to make up the Executive Committee 2020.
8 Executive Committee Members elected at the 2020 AGM:
7 Executive Committee Members nominated by Business Associations (in alphabetical order):
BELUXCHAM: Jan Segers
CCIFV: Jean-Jacques Bouflet
CEEC: Nguyen Hai Minh
DBAV: Ywert Visser
GBA: Torben Minko
ICHAM: Tomaso Andreatta
NORDCHAM: Thue Quist Thomasen
Chair, Vice-Chairs, and Treasurer for 2020/21
Nicolas Audier (Audier & Partners LLC) was re-elected as EuroCham Chairman, with Vice-Chairs Tomaso Andreatta (Intesa Sanpaolo), Guy Balza (OMG), Jean-Jacques Bouflet (individual member), Nguyen Hai Minh (Mazars) and Ywert Visser (individual member) also re-elected. Tomaso Andreatta was additionally elected as Treasurer, and Dr Stefano Pellegrino (Aspire) was re-elected as Secretary General.
The meeting, which took place on Wednesday the 24th of June in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, was the first Executive Committee (ExCo) meeting, and the new board also discussed priorities and actions for the upcoming months.
