The partnership of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) and the Asean Business Advisory Council (BAC) Philippines continues its advocacy of creating awareness and preparing the country for the Asean Economic Community (AEC).
Last year, we organized the MAP AEC Exchange, which featured forums on various issues that may result from economic integration and free trade such as increased competition and regional tariff rates, among others (visit map.org.ph to get the full details). In these forums, we stressed that the AEC will happen and the best way forward is to prepare for it. My guide is to apply ABC to the AEC—Audit your environment, Build your brand to compete in this new environment, and Communicate to reach this expanded market.
This year, MAP has stepped up its Asean Integration program to encourage participation and collaboration with MAP’s AEC Engage. These series of forums will tackle the 5 Rules of Engagement that will guide all businesses in strengthening locally and expanding regionally:
know the RULES, know the RISKS, know the REGION, know the RESOURCES, and know the REWARDS.
As part of its program to increase AEC awareness in the country, the Asean BAC Philippines will launch the Asean Business Awards (ABA) Philippines. The ABA Philippines will recognize outstanding national enterprises, and highlight their best practices that enable them to address the challenges and opportunities of the AEC. Their stories will inspire and rally Filipino Businesses to become key players in the broader market and strengthen over-all competitiveness of the Philippines in the AEC.
The Asean Business Awards seeks to recognize both Large Businesses and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The categories are also divided into these two groups: Innovation, Corporate Excellence, and Asean Centricity for Large Businesses; and Innovation, Young Entrepreneur and Women Leadership for SMEs.
Strategic partner KPMG will audit all nominations, while a select panel of 10 judges—composed of the country’s top business leaders, economists and academics— will select the six awards recipients, one for each category.
Interested companies and SMEs may visit the Asean BAC Philippines website at www.aseanbac.ph to know more about the Awards’ guidelines and mechanics, or send an inquiry to the ABA Philippines Secretariat via abasecretariat@aseanbac.ph.
The six winners will be announced during the ABA Philippines Gala Night on Sept. 9, 2014. They will then represent the country in the Regional ABA this coming November, wherein one winner per category will be selected from all the country representatives.
The Asean Business Awards Philippines is truly something that all Filipino businessmen should aspire to be a part of. This public-private collaboration will see the government and private sector coming together to develop and implement strategies that will help Philippine businesses compete in a larger arena. The government, through the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Finance (DoF), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), have been collaborating with its private sector counterparts such as the MAP, the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (Finex), the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) and the Philippine Confederation of Exporters Inc. (Philexport)—to empower the business community to compete regionally come 2015.
It is my sincerest hope that the members of the Philippine business community will take part in the Asean Business Awards Philippines. We encourage local businesses to become more involved in these activities, with the confidence that this will help create new business leaders ready to compete in a bigger market. Moreover, as businesses grow, we can look forward to the inevitable effect that it will have in building and strengthening the Philippines, truly an upstanding member of the Asean community and the global village we all live in.
(The author is the governor-in-charge of the MAP Asean Integration Committee and the MAP CEO Conference Committee. He is the chair and CEO of EON The Stakeholder Relations Firm, regarded as the pioneering stakeholder relations firm that puts TRUST at the heart of its collaborations and dialogues with different stakeholders of its clients. Feedback at mapsecretariat@gmail.com and junie@eon.com.ph. For previous articles, visit map.org.ph.)