Ho Chi Minh City, October 2nd, 2024
Dear Members, Partners, and Friends of the GBA,
After a long summer, we are excited to welcome you to the last quarter of 2024. This year has been a challenging journey for many sectors due to slow demand. However, we are receiving an increasing number of positive signals from members in several industries, indicating improvements. Our community has also grown over the last three months; we now consist of 389 members and 16 corporate partners. Germany remains a strategic investor in Vietnam, highlighted by the opening of the new Kärcher factory in Quang Nam news>>> and a new operations center by DIGI-TEXX in Hau Giang in Q3 news>>>
In the first nine months of 2024, we successfully hosted 70 community activities across business, sports, social, and cultural events, matching the total number of events in 2023, with an impressive number of attendees at each event. Our Fanmeile in Ho Chi Minh City, with 700 football lovers, completed this strong list during the Euro Cup 2024 news>>>. A true milestone for our team was the newly launched German Business Awards. Together with around 200 participants, we celebrated the excellence and success of our community news>>>. My personal congratulations to the winners: Nestlé, Bosch Vietnam, PALLAS BrandFare, Super Energy Corporation, and COPEPODS team from the University of Da Nang.
Our third quarter was filled with many GBA event highlights, starting with our legendary sold-out Oktoberfest in Hanoi from September 26th to 28th, where over 5,000 guests enjoyed German tradition in Vietnam news>>>.
The board organized, for the first time, a Mid-Year Off-Site on July 27th to reflect on the first half of our term and prepare us to keep delivering in the second half towards our strategy to grow the community, deliver high-quality events, and extend our reach news>>>
As GBA, we stay closely connected with the Vietnamese community and public stakeholders, representing you and your interests. Vice-chairman Torben Minko and I welcomed the new German ambassador, Ms. Hela Margarete Barth, in Hanoi, accredited since August 12th. She expressed her strong support for the German business community news>>>. As part of our social responsibility, we donated 100 million VND to support the Centre for Nursing, Rehabilitation, and Assistance for Children and Disabilities HCMC in their mission to enhance vocational training to create new opportunities news>>>
September also marked a major change in EuroCham Vietnam, as Dominik Meichle moved on to a new role within Bosch overseas, and therefore stepped down as Chairman. We will truly miss his strong commitment to striving for a better business climate. We congratulate Mr. Bruno Jaspart from DEEPC as his successor in the Chairman role. We are also pleased to see our former GBA Chairman, Mr. Alexander Götz, General Manager of Fischer ASIA, newly elected to the EuroCham board, ensuring our strong GBA representation, as EuroCham is our key platform to advocate for our interests news>>>
Looking ahead to the last quarter of 2024, you can expect the following highlights from GBA to pencil in your calendars: Oktoberfest Danang (October 4th), Oktoberfest HCMC (October 10th – 12th), GEFE 2024 (October 21st – 23rd), EuroCham Gala Dinner (October 22nd), GBA Football Cup (November 23rd), Monthly Business Meetings: November 4th (AI in Business | Learn more here) and December 2nd (Review of 2024/Outlook for 2025).
Lastly, we are in full swing of the 2025 anniversaries, namely 50 years of German-Vietnamese diplomatic relations and 30 years of GBA. Stay tuned for further details, which we will share soon.
The German Business Association is strongly committed to creating a leading business community. We achieve this success thanks to your ongoing membership support, particularly backed by our corporate partners and event sponsors. A heartfelt thank you as well to our institutional partners and the GBA office team supporting our cause day and night. Let us keep driving towards excellence and success, completing this exciting year of 2024.
Sincerely Yours,
Alexander Ziehe
Chairman of the Board
German Business Association (GBA)
(Click here>>> for the official letter)