Speech of the President of ACEMr Ekasit Kunanantakul
Mr. Ancheta Tan, the immediate past President of ACE, President, board members and executives of ACE members and friends. It is with great pleasure that ECOT is taking on the Presidency and the secretariat role of ACE, and particularly for me to take over this important position as the new President of ACE. ACE was established with the initial 5 founding members, and now we have 9 members from the 9 EOs in the region, and I learned that VCCI in Vietnam is looking to join us this year, which will make a complete 10 EOs to represent the 10 ASEAN members. We are so pleased to welcome our new members, and at the same time, our role as ASEAN employers is becoming more relevant, alongside the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community, which aim to achieve an integrated, cohesive, competitive, innovative and dynamic ASEAN community, with enhanced connectivity and sectoral cooperation for integration into the global economy. ACE was established with the initial objective to optimize our liaison, co-operation in the fields of labour and social legislation, industrial relations and practices, and ECOT, as a founding member of ACE, has been working collaboratively towards our common objectives. With the evolving trends and economic integration, and the expanding membership of ACE, I believe our roles and collaboration would go beyond labour and industrial relations, and our voice as ASEAN employers should also become stronger. Therefore, it is even more important for us now to unite ourselves to represent the voice of private sector in the region, which is also the common agreement when ACE was established in 1978. ACE has been the collaborating partner of ILO, IOE, CAPE, ATUC and other regional and international organisation, we the President and secretariat of ACE for the next 2 years, we are committed not only to continue our existing collaboration, but to enhance our image and relevancy as a strong and representative regional ASEAN employers, advocate our position regionally and globally.