At the annual general meeting of the Thai-Finnish Chamber of Commerce on 28 September Mr Jari Hietala was elected as the President, with Jouni Heinonen and Pornpracha Wattanakijsiri as Vice Presidents.
H.E. Ambassador of Finland Satu Suikkari-Kleven also attended and held a speech.
“I am obviously excited and honoured about this opportunity to represent the Finnish business in Thailand. I am also very pleased about the composition of the rest of the board of TFCC. It is a good combination of different industries with a wealth of combined experience of doing business in Thailand and the rest of Asia,” Jari Hietala tells ScandAsia.
He has not held the position previously. “I used to be the Trade Commissioner of Finland to Thailand in the past and also Vice President and the Head of Asia for Finland’s export promotion agency Finpro based here in Bangkok and later on in Hong Kong.”
“My main occupation at the moment is with my own management consulting firm Asia Sales Channels Ltd. With my partners I cover the whole Asia having only my residence here in Bangkok. As the name of my company indicates, I specialize in helping my clients to develop and manage their sales channels in various Asian markets. Like many of us know by experience, it is not a particularly difficult challenge to find distributors, agents, system integrators and other types of third party channel partners in Asia. The real challenge is to get sales and new business with them! For this challenge I bring tested methods, tools and processes. In addition I work on part time basis for three Finnish companies.”
Commenting on the TFCC work ahead Jari says: “As in any business, a successful strategy should be simple and clear. The main objective of TFCC is to support its partners and members with all the tools and resources we have. In my view this will be the number one cornerstone in our strategy. We need to be innovative and proactive in developing new services and concepts in this regard, in addition to activities we have traditionally carried out.”
“I trust and rely heavily on the motivation and competence of my fellow board members in sharing this work. I have also noticed that there has been very positive development in enhancing Nordic co-operation. I very much support these activities and look forward to close co-operation with other Nordic Chambers in Thailand.”
The event to commemorate the 25 years of the Thai-Finnish Chamber of Commerce in Thailand takes place on 10 October. The biggest anniversary event ever for TFCC it includes Special Awards to be given to those companies in different categories, which have contributed to the success of TFCC and to the business community in general.
