#FridayFive from the Executive Director: 21 June 2024

My #FridayFive for this week covers some pretty special moments:

1.  Fantastic evening celebrating the birthday of King Charles at Eden Hall. Fab to see Minister Grace Fu as the Guest of Honour. On a personal level, it was one of the last times to celebrate the very best of British in Singapore with H.E Kara Owen and William Tierney. I wish both of you a fantastic onward journey and hope to see you soon. 👑 🎉

2.  Straight after my last #FridayFive, I was delighted to meet up with David McCredie AM OBE former CEO of the Australian British Chamber of Commerce. What I LOVE about Dave is his ability super-connect like no-one else (there are plenty of stories to tell here!), and he convened some brilliant connections whilst in London incl Sir Charles Bowman Emma Stuart and many others as we looked at ways to share what we are doing how we can collaborate better across the world. 🤝 🎇

3.  SBF and Electronic Bills of Lading – continuing our work on trade digitalisation pilots, Louise and I attended the Singapore Business Federation’s event to discuss digital trade more broadly and the Electronic Bills of Lading. Key takeaways include creating demand for change, large companies moving the needle, and more examples of how to support smaller businesses to digitalise their supply chains. 🚢 🚚

4. TAFEP Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices – We hosted a brilliant session for members on flexible work arrangements and the upcoming legislation on work place fairness – thanks to Jason Chan and the team for such a brilliant presentation – bringing this content to HR, legal and immigration professionals is just the sort of thing we do at the Chamber. We will be doing more around this topic for the wider membership network. 🤝 📢

5.  I also had an Executive Committee meeting this week, the last one with Damian Adams as President. I just want to say a huge thank you to Damian for all of his support, guidance and counsel. A fantastic President of the Chamber who has represented all member companies and been a champion of British trade in Singapore. Looking forward to working more closely with Haslam Preeston, together with new member of the ExCo, Suzy Goulding who is now a Vice-President of the Chamber. Working alongside Christina Mason (Treasurer), Nick Magnus MBE (Secretary) and Simon Middlebrough (Vice-President), the chamber has an excellent ExCo.

Our TLSC and E&U committees arranged a trip to visit Shell's Electric Dream commuter ferries. Launched last year, the three all-electric ferries help transport some 3,000 staff and contractors to Shell’s Energy and Chemicals Park on Pulau Bukom.

Going to the #UK for the British Chambers of Commerce Global Annual Conference and likely taking some personal time out, so look forward to reconnecting when I’m back. Finally, what better way than to end on congratulating Nick and Richard who were both recognised with MBEs in the King’s Birthday Honours – hugely deserved. 👏