Following our successfull event in cooperation with Oslo Børs, “Singapore Capital Markets and Source for financing” on 30th November, SNCC held our first Annual General Meeting.
The General Meeting approved the accounts for 2016, the annual report, budget for 2017, some minor amendments to the Articles of Association, new members to the Board of Directors and to increase the member fees from 2018.
The General Meeting unanimously elected the following new Board of Directors:
Erik Borgen, Chairman of the Board
Bjørn Oscar Tønsberg , Board member
Geir Henning Sviggum , Board member
Eva Charlotte Demeer Strøm , Board member
Bjørn-Tore Markussen, Board member
Torger Reve, Board member
Øivind Amundsen, Board member
Ole Henæs, Board member
Vidar Andersen, Board member
Christian Chramer, Board member
Ole Henæs is replacing Ole Johan Sandvær and we would like to say thank you to Ole Johan for his great work for SNCC. We welcome our new members and are looking forward to 2018.
Furthermore, the General Meeting unanimously made the resolution to increase the member fees to NOK 5,000 for corporate members and NOK 1,000 for individual members.
We thank you all for a great 2017 and wish you all a happy 2018!
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Singapore-Norway Chamber of Commerce (SNCC) – Annual Report /Activity Report 2016/17
1 Good start to an important networking organization
SNCC was inaugurated and established on 26th Sept 2016 by 20 Corporate and Individual members.
The SNCC is a membership non-profit organization with its base in Oslo. The members are made up of primarily Norwegian and Singaporean companies. The chamber’s objective is to promote development of business relations between Singapore and Norway, with a particular focus in creating relevant platforms for exchange of ideas and networking for our members.
SNCC also aims to promote our members’ interests to key decision makers and influencers from the Singaporean and Norwegian political and business worlds, by offering opportunities for our members to develop their business and expand their network of contacts.
We have since the inauguration hosted several well attended events with distinguished speakers who are experts in their fields in order to provide cross-border insights. Our events try to focus on issues which are on-trend, emerging and disruptive in a professional and social environment to enable our members to exchange experiences and share best practices and ideas.
SNCC is the first, and so far only, established Chamber of Commerce in Norway from an ASEAN country, hence it is natural for us to see all of ASEAN as our focus area. This bolds well with how Norwegian business in many ways sees Singapore as a hub for the region and how Singapore sees itself as a launchpad for doing business in the wider Asian region.
2 SNCC Board and Administration
Since inception the SNCC Board has consisted of 7 members and one observer as per below list;
Erik Borgen
Bjørn Tore Markussen
Bjørn Tønsberg
Geir Sviggum
Torger Reve
Charlotte Demeer Strøm
Ole Johan Sandvær
Øivind Amundsen (Observer)
The Board meets regularly and has had 11 meetings over this period.
The SNCC secretariat was initially headed by Hamidah Gulliksen and then in 2017 it was taken over by Ruby Hassan. During Ruby’s leave of absence from this fall, Carina Østli has taken over as Head of the SNCC secretariat.
SNCC uses Wikborg Rein’s office address.
3 Activities and Events for Members 2016
October 10th/11th– SNCC was part of the official Norwegian Business Delegation and their programme in conjunction with the State Visit by Singapore’s President Tony Tan to Norway. Together with Innovation Norway (IN) we signed a tripartite agreement with the Singapore Business Federation.
December 7th – “Digitilization : Singapore shaping the Future ?” – Breakfast meeting with Walter Quam, Toppindustrisentret and Tom Riege, Telenor hosted by Telenor at Telenor Expo, Fornebu
2017 – now
March 14th – SNCC took part in a Norwegian –Singaporean Matchmaking Workshop arranged by IN and International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore) with a delegation of Singaporean companies in the Oil&Gas sector and several Norwegian companies and organizations.
March 15th – “Singapore: The Launchpad for doing Business in Asia” – Breakfast meeting with Edmund Mok and Sim Zhilin from the Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDB) and case study by Bjørn Tore Markussen of DNV GL, hosted by IN.
May 31st – “ ASIAN Belt Podium “ – SNCC co-arranged a panel discussion together with NOR-SHIPPING at this years NOR-Shipping Conference, followed by a reception. With the assistance of not least the Maritime Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) we managed to get top speakers from the Asian Shipping Community to take part in this prestigious event.
August 21st – “ASEAN Business Reception” – Reception hosted by Wikborg Rein for ASEAN ambassadors in Norway and their Norwegian counterparts in the ASEAN countries. Guests of Honor were Norwegian State Secretaries Tone Skogen (MFA) and Dilek Ayhan (MFTI)
Sept 21st – “Winning contracts together with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) ”- SNCC co-arranged a Seminar together with NHO and the Chinese and Indian Chambers of Commerce, hosted by NHO.
Upcoming Event:
Nov 30th – “Singapore Capital Markets and Source for Financing” – Breakfast meeting with speakers and panelists from SGX (Spore Stock Exchange), Oslo Børs, DNB and Wilh. Wilhelmsen ASA
4 Membership situation
As per November we have 45 members , most have paid but we still have some outstanding membership fees that we are chasing.
The board plans to raise the number of members during 2018 further.The Board feels that we should target to have approx. 100 Corporate Members in SNCC.
5 Financial Situation
We have decided to report 2016 together with 2017 simply because we had not raised any significant amount of membership fees before 2017, nor did we have any material expenses.
This being said, the amount raised through the Membership fees for 2017 will barely cover our costs despite our very low overhead with a small Secretariat and the fact that we have managed to get all our events sponsored and have had minimal costs in this regard.
For 2018 we are planning with a raise in the Membership fee – from NOK 3000 to NOK 5000 for Corporate Members and from NOK 250 to NOK 1000 for Individual Members which should give us some more financial headroom for the activities we intend to have during the year. Furthermore it is also the ambition to raise some money through a Sponsor programme.
6 Plans for 2018
The Board will continue the work in accordance with SNCC’s objectives and cause. The main objective for 2018 will be to maintain the quality of our member events by addressing topics that are interesting and useful to the members and by assuring the quality of speakers at the meetings. As such we have plans for several events going forward, also Networking sessions.
Furthermore the Board is committed to expand SNCC’s member base further, also with Singaporean companies as well as work on securing a more sustainable financial basis for the Chamber.
SNCC already has well established ties to several of the important Singaporean institutions such as the MPA, EDB,IE-Singapore, Spring and SBF and we intend to cement these ties even further. These institutions have already expressed their great interest in SNCC and wish to continue with a good cooperation with us.
For the SNCC Board
Erik Borgen
Chairman Oslo, 31st Oct 2017