Top CEOs to speak at Bali summit

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

World-class CEOs from the region and other parts of the world will speak at the upcoming ASEAN business and investment summit on Bali, a top envoy said.

Chairman of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN BAC) Rudy J. Pesik told The Jakarta Post last week that the CEOs will join 11 heads of state from ASEAN member countries plus India, China, South Korea and Japan.

He, however, said that the presence of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was not yet certain, pending the result of the general election in his country.

Rudy said that the top business leaders to speak in the business and investment forum were CEOs of Toyota Corp., Daimler Chrysler, Proton, Singapore International Airlines, SingTel, Tata Engineering, Ayala Corp., Keppel Group, Charoen Pokpand and PT Indofood Sukses Makmur.

"We're still trying hard to get Bill Gates to also speak in the forum," he said, although acknowledging that the chance would be slim as Gates already had a busy schedule for the next year.

About 1,000 businesspeople from members countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations and its key trading partners like Japan, China, India, and South Korea are expected to participate in the summit, which will be held from Oct. 5 to Oct. 7.

The event will be held in conjunction with the ASEAN leaders summit.

Rudy explained that one of the mandates of ASEAN BAC when it was set up two years ago was to hold a business summit.

He said that the business and investment summit had two main goals: integration of ASEAN business and economy, and how to boost the competitiveness of the ASEAN region.

"We'll focus on what needs to be done to make ASEAN as one integrated region," he said.

Rudy was optimistic that the event could be implemented successfully despite very limited time for preparation. He was appointed as ASEAN BAC chairman in April.

He recalled that in the beginning it was very difficult to get sponsors for the event particularly as many companies had already provided sponsorship for the APEC event in Bangkok, which will also be held next month.

"I had to underwrite it by providing a personal guarantee of US$1 million ... to show people that I believe in this," he said, adding that DHL became the first sponsor by providing $50,000.

Rudy is the CEO of DHL's Indonesian operation.