Dear Members and friends

What strange days we live in!  Whether you are in Myanmar or have temporarily relocated back to Australia or elsewhere, we wanted to send the message that AustCham Myanmar is here to support you as much as we possibly can.

We have an excellent and diverse team of Directors in place who are all working to help the Chamber deliver information, events and services relevant to our Members in these dramatically different times. Our bios and contact details are below so please don’t hesitate to contact any of us if you think we can help or if you have an idea you would like is to take on board. 

As is the case for all our Members, COIVD-19 has meant we’ve had to make big changes to the way we do things.  Providing timely and relevant information to you across our different communications platforms has been our focus over the last few weeks.  This has included being a key communications partner of our Embassy here in Myanmar – particularly their hard-working Consular team and Austrade as well.  We will continue to prioritise this, and are happy to support any Members who wish to share information and insights to our community too.  Please feel free to send us any news you would like broadcast.

We are also reshaping our events program.  Holding a virtual Digger’s Dance is probably a little beyond our capabilities but we will be bringing you a series of web-based events jointly with Austrade after the Thingyan break.  Our good friend U Aung Naing Oo, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Investment Foreign Economic Relations, should be joining us in the first of these to share details of the economic stimulus and related measures that the Myanmar Government is putting in place to help business through this crisis.  We will share case studies and insights from members about the adaptions and innovations that they are making to keep their businesses operating effectively, and I’ll run a session with others looking at how businesses can navigate some of the key legal and business challenges they are facing in light of the operational disruptions and financial constraints they are experiencing.  We also hope to be bringing in expert speakers to talk to us about employee health and wellbeing in the virtual workplace and a range of other great topics as well.  The program is in development with more details to be shared shortly, and if you have an idea for a webinar, or would like to present something yourself, then please get in touch also and we’ll schedule this. 

Like you, we’re having to make operational changes to manage what is a pretty significant economic disruption. I’m very pleased to say that with the cooperation of the Embassy, our landlord, and our highly committed secretariat team we have managed to put in place some interim measures to help us manage our costs at a time of reduced revenue and where there will be fewer revenue raising activities.  Huge thanks to DFAT and our team for this.

We need our Members to back us now too.  Please continue to support us by renewing your annual memberships when they fall due and by sponsoring our initiatives if you can. We’re giving incentives for renewals so please take advantage of these and help keep your Chamber strong and working for you.

All the best for Thingyan, Easter and with all else you are doing – together we’ll get through this!

Chris Hughes, Chairman