The 10 ASEAN member states are the most important export market for Germany after China in the Asian region. Now, the six ASEAN German Chambers Abroad (AHKS) of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam have opened a common corporate ASEAN AHK (German Chambers Abroad) office in Frankfurt am Main. This office is headed by Ms Sandra Obermeier. Ms Obermeier possesses vast and extensive experience in doing business in Asia.
Dr Tim Philippi, Executive Director of SGC, stressed that the ASEAN AHK office in Frankfurt a. M is an important step in the optimization of the Chamber’s services. He also added that through this office SGC could bring its German customers to Singapore in a rather shorter way. SGC could also inform these customers individually about the market potentials in the region.
Likewise, the IHK Frankfurt welcomed this development. Dr Jürgen Ratzinger, IHK Manager International Market believed that in giving advice to companies who want to invest to foreign countries, it is important for IHKs to work with the network of German Chambers Abroad (AHK) who are present in 120 locations in 80 countries. Cooperation with the ASEAN AHKs will intensify the Know-How-Sharing between IHKs and AHKs. In this way, IHKs could better enlighten German export companies.
To have visualization how big a market ASEAN is: the ASEAN comprises 10 countries in Southeast Asia and has a total population of around 600 million. Besides China and India, this region belongs to the growth center in Asia. En route to advance ASEAN‘s integration for a common market, the six members of Intra-ASEAN Trading (Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) has already lifted almost all customs tariff at the beginning of this year for goods traded amongst themselves.
Dr Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN Secretary General has encouraged in a meeting with IHK Vice President Stefan Messer and Dr Ratzinger, held at IHK Frankfurt, German companies to have a strong involvement in the region. According to him, the dynamics in Southeast Asia offer lots of potentials for German companies. It is important that these companies strongly position themselves before others get the piece of the pie.
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