Business Networking Among Asean Countries

BUSINESS NETWORKING AMONG ASEAN COUNTRIES

(Delivered on the occasion of the Asean Book Publishers
Association’s (ABPA) Forum, February 25, 2007,
Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Sport Complex, Berakas)

by
Atty. Dominador D. Buhain
Vice-President, ABPA (Philippines)

Greetings:

When we established ABPA, it is our aspiration to get to know one another culturally and socially in order to reap greater benefits of an expanded business market.

During the Manila International Book Fair in August 2006 in the course of the ABPA Forum, a Resolution urging the respective governments of the Asean member-countries to adopt and/or develop a common language to bridge communication and to correspondingly publish or express the language of culture in order to foster unity, respect and love for one another that could lead to greater socio-cultural and economic benefits was passed.

The above resolution emphasizes on the need for the nations to understand one another while retaining the local language or dialect because of the diversity of languages in the Asean region. A common language must be evolved or utilized at all times in every informal or formal communication.

In order to have networking, the above requirements must be pursued.
Based on survey, there are essential principles of effective networking:

1)Identification of common grounds;
2)Mechanics on how to help individual members;
3)Development of a connection pipeline;
4)Each member must contribute something;
5)Avoid the free loaders.

Under the first principle (identification of common grounds), our common objectives are explicitly laid down under ABPA Constitution and By-laws.

Under the second and third principles, in the course of ABPA Meeting in Vietnam on November 25, 2006, we adopted a resolution establishing working committees, namely:

A.Training and Development Committee (TADCO) (presently under the chairmanship of Brunei through Dr. Mataim Bakar) wherein the objectives are as follow:

1.To provide improvements in editorial and production standards through training and use of new publishing technology and to develop more efficient distribution channels.

2.To exchange ideas among themselves through scholarship grants and trainings for people engaged in printing, publishing, distribution and other related activities.

3.To promote better understanding and goodwill among Asean member-countries through cultural exchanges and related activities.

4.To perform other functions to carry out the objectives of TADCO.

B.Legal, Copyright and Licensing Committee (LECLI) presently under Philippines through Atty. Dominador D. Buhain whose objectives are as follow:

1.To emulate the best business practices and legal infrastructures among the ABPA members.

Example : Collation of all existing national book policies and legislations and rules to improve book publishing industry.

2. To promote and protect by all means the principles of copyright on which depend the encouragement and authorship, publishing and dissemination of creative works and to defend copyright against all infringements which may restrict the rights of authors and publishers.

Example: Collation of the existing copyright laws of the Asean member-countries.

3. To work toward securing the right of publishers to publish and distribute the works of the mind in complete freedom, provided that in so doing they respect all legal rights attached to these works within their own country and internationally.

Example: Collation of cases involving censorship, violation of publication and press freedom, etc.

4. To seek the abolition of all tariff and restrictions, as much as possible, on the importation or exportation of books and raw materials thereof and all present and future forms of electronically retrieved information in order to strengthen the enforcement of the Florence Agreement on the free-flow of information.

5.To conduct preliminary investigation on disputes or controversies affecting member-countries, if any, and present findings to the ABPA Council.

6. To perform other functions necessary to carry-out the objectives of the LECLI.

C.Co-Publishing, Translation and Distribution Rights Committee (COTRAC) under the chairmanship of Raymund Yeo of the Malaysia Book Publishers Association (MABOPA) whose objectives are as follow:

1. To intensify co-publishing programmes, translation and distribution rights among ABPA member-countries.

2.To perform such other functions as may be necessary to carry-out the objectives of the Committee.

D. Book Fairs, International Fora and Foreign Affairs Committee (BIFAC) whose objectives are as follow:

1. To have visible, effective and dignified representation in international forum/fora, book fairs and other related international activities.

2. To establish such bodies, conventions and other types of meetings with the view of threshing out problems in the respective book publishing industries in the ASEAN region.

3.To provide endorsement and support to the Asia Pacific Publishers Association (APPA) and International Publishers Association (IPA) with the expectation that the said Associations shall give reciprocal endorsement and support to the ABPA.

4.To represent the ABPA in international book fairs, international fora and to take charge of ABPA pavilion , book display, mini-library and the like in the course of the fora and book fairs.

5.To perform such other functions to carry-out the above-cited objectives.
It is my belief that if we follow the golden rule of effective networking wherein the respective organizations or the member-countries concerned would try to contribute their best through networking, they would somehow receive correspondingly equal or greater benefits.

I realize that all these activities need monetary support. We are hopeful that ways and means would be established to receive financial help.

I trust that the ABPA would be given recognition and assistance by the Asean government counterparts because of a strong correlation between the growth of the nation with the growth of the book publishing industry .

Allow me to refresh pertinent statistical data of the Asean member-countries which may prove helpful to networking:

Sources:
Population: https://www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk
Titles Published in 2004/2005:
*APPA Country Report 2005
**National Library, Singapore
***National Book Development Board, Philippines
****ASEAN Publishing Trend Forum, Bangkok (March 2005)
*****Six Government Dept. of Brunei
GDP: https://www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk

What I am trying to say is that the more data we could get from one another like the number of titles published in local dialects, titles translated from foreign-authored titles, jointly authored with foreign titles, percentage of share of the local book publishing industry to the Gross National Product (GNP), the more we would be able to determine our strengths and weaknesses as a basis for collaborative assistance to develop effective networking.