This year’s Asia-Pacific Regional Conference will be hosted by GGI member firm Dherakupt International Law Office Ltd at the Shangri-La Hotel Bangkok, Thailand, from 11 to 14 December 2014. On Thursday, early arrivals can enjoy a round of golf before the conference, which starts with an International Taxation Practice Group (ITPG) meeting in the afternoon and will be following by a welcome cocktail reception at which new members will be introduced. The conference will be officially opened on Friday by Viktor Vavricka, Deputy Head of Mission at the Swiss Embassy in Bangkok.
In his keynote speech, will address the subject of how the global macro-economic environment is driving the Asian integration model. Juerg Kiener is Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of Swiss Asia Capital (Singapore) Private Limited. He has more than twenty- five years’ experience in the banking industry, with extensive expertise in private banking, asset management and securities. He has gained considerable global investment experience, having taken up positions with two leading Swiss banks, Credit Suisse and Union Bancaire Privee, working around the world in locations including Geneva, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, London, Singapore and Zurich. Juerg also has a sound knowledge of alternative asset management and, as Chief Investment Officer, incorporates this successfully into global investment products.
The next keynote speech will be delivered by Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, who was Secretary- General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) from 1 September 2005 to 31 August 2013. Prior to this, he was the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation from 1 September 2002 to 1 September 2005. He was succeeded by Pascal Lamy.
In 1986, Supachai Panitchpakdi was appointed as Thailand’s Deputy Minister of Finance, but left politics and became President of the Thai Military Bank when the Thai parliament was dissolved in 1988. In 1992, he returned to politics and became Deputy Prime Minister until 1995. He was responsible for trade and economics. During the Asian financial crisis in November 1997, he returned to the post of Deputy Prime Minister and also took on the role of Minister of Commerce.
In September 1999, he was elected Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), sharing the post with rival Mike Moore when a consensus could not be reached. Taking the second half of the six year term, he entered office on 1 September 2002.
In March 2005, he was appointed Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) following his term at the WTO, a post he took up in late 2005. He was reappointed for a second four-year term in September 2009. Keen to reform and revitalise the organisation, he established a Panel of Eminent Persons to oversee the start of the reform of UNCTAD.
Supachai received his Master’s degree in Economics, Development Planning and his Ph.D. in Economic Planning and Development at the Netherlands School of Economics (now known as Erasmus University in Rotterdam). In 1973, he completed his doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Professor Jan Tinbergen, the first Nobel laureate in economics. In the same year, he went to Cambridge University as a visiting fellow to conduct research on development models.
It is not too late for GGI members who have not yet registered to do so. Please use the online registration tool at http://www.ggi.com (member login > Events). The conference programme is also available on the website.
GGI | Geneva Group International 