KUALA LUMPUR: Chairman of CIMB Group
, Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, has been appointed inaugural chair of the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Regional Business Council (RBC).
In a statement, CIMB said the RBC, which was launched on Tuesday at the WEF’s Mekong Region meeting in Hanoi, was made up of 25 Asean businesses and 30 global companies.
It said 55 heads of major companies had joined forces to promote public-private cooperation on the most pressing issues facing South-East Asia.
“The focus will be on areas such as building infrastructure, promoting cross-border trade and investment in Asean, developing a digital economy, examining the future of jobs and industry in the region, and championing the principles of inclusive growth,” it said.
Nazir said he was deeply honoured to have been appointed the first chairperson of the WEF’s Asean RBC.
“Together with my fellow committee members, the RBC will strive to give its best towards enhancing public-private partnership to uplift Asean’s socio-economic progress, as many of the biggest challenges in Asean can be overcome by getting business and government working well together,” hesaid.
CIMB said among the first initiatives to be launched by RBC in 2017 would be a strategic infrastructure programme that would promote the concept of blended finance through both public and private capital.
CIMB said another priority project would be promoting small- and medium-sized enterprises to help them achieve regional scale and become the next generation of Asean-level corporates.
The RBC Steering Committee comprises several leading corporate leaders including James Riady (Lippo Group), Patrick Walujo (Northstar), Don Lam (VinaCapital), Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar (Khazanah Nasional), Tan Sri Tony Fernandes (AirAsia), Jaime Zobel Ayala (Ayala Corp), Tevin Vongvanich (PTT) and Tessie Sy-Coson (SM Investments). - Bernama
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