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President at AGM: SCCIJ “in very good shape”

President at AGM: SCCIJ “in very good shape”

Tokyo (SCCIJ) – At the 36th Annual General Meeting (AGM), President Mr. Michael Mroczek has highlighted the “impressive number” of close to 200 members and the “nice financial situation” of the Swiss Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan. “The chamber is in very good shape”, Mr. Mroczek, SCCIJ President since early 2015, said. Also, Mr. Luca Sergio Orduña was elected to the Executive Committee as the successor of Mr. Fabien Clerc who resigned from the board due to the integration of his employer Switzerland Tourism into the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan. Mr. Mark Torii took over his position of Vice President Kanto. Four existing board members were confirmed in their positions.

Report of PR/Media Subcommittee

The Ambassador of Switzerland, Mr. Jean-François Paroz, who is also the Honorary President of the SCCIJ, formally declared the Annual General Meeting 2018 opened. After a short review of the past year, SCCIJ President Mroczek gave the word to Executive Committee member Mr. Jean-Jacques Jaccard. The head of the PR/Media subcommittee (other members: B. Mark, A. Zimmermann, P. Saurer) offered a positive summary of the activities in 2017.

President at AGM: SCCIJ “in very good shape”

AGM of the SCCIJ in 2018

87 news articles and SCCIJ activity reports were published. 48 newsletters were sent out. The page views of the SCCIJ homepage increased by more than 40 percent. Also, the SCCIJ has started to provide articles in Japanese which are produced by the news service Swissinfo. The SCCIJ Linkedin presence was changed from a discussion group to a company page and has now 87 followers. The number of friends at the SCCIJ Facebook account increased to 388. The SCCIJ Twitter account was also relaunched and has now 297 followers.

President at AGM: SCCIJ “in very good shape”

Executive Committee with Advisors at the SCCIJ AGM 2018

Renewal of website in 2018

The PR and media activities are all financed by the contributions of the SCCIJ sponsors. They currently are: Platinum – The Adecco Group, Credit Suisse, Straumann; Gold – M-Industry Japan, Montfort Advertising, Novartis, Reishauer, Roche, SWISS, Swissôtel Nankai Osaka, Unzen Kanko Hotel; Silver – DKSH, Hotel Grand Phenix Okushiga, USM Modular Furniture; Bronze – ABB, Actelion, Hilti, Nestlé, Pictet, Richemont.

Mr. Jaccard announced the renewal of the SCCIJ website during the first half of 2018. Stefan Meier and Andreas Alexelis, founders and directors of Cloudsential GK, are in charge of developing the design and layout. The main benefits will be responsiveness (the website adopts to any screen size automatically), automated registration for events and online payments via credit cards. The new website will also give more visibility to sponsors and stakeholders.

President at AGM: SCCIJ “in very good shape”

Kampai speech of Mr. Jean-François Paroz, Ambassador of Switzerland to Japan and Honorary President of the SCCIJ, with President Mr. Michael Mroczek

Report of Kanto and Kansai Events Committees

The head of the Kanto Events subcommittee, Ms. Mamiko Tanaka (other members: M. Torii, F. Clerc), reported 13 luncheons with a total of 604 participants which was a small decrease from the busy year 2016. Prominent speakers were Ms. Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter (National Councillor) together with Mr. Akira Amari (former Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry), Dr. William H. Saito (Special Advisor to the Cabinet Office, Gov. of Japan) and Mr. Joseph Jimenez (CEO of Novartis). There were also events with the Embassy of Switzerland and the Swiss Club Tokyo. More than 270 guests were counted at the Year End Party.

The head of the Kansai Events subcommittee, Mr. Dieter Sommerhalder (other members: T. Keller), thanked Christian Schaufelbühl who left Japan for his contribution to the SCCIJ Kansai chapter. He had been on the board for four years until his status changed to Special Advisor. Regarding events in 2017, there was a Swiss Young Professionals and Friends meeting in Kansai, a corporate event at the Grand Front Osaka Victorinox Store and a Novartis factory visit in Sasayama followed by a dinner.

For 2018, the SCCIJ Kansai chapter plans another Swiss Yong Professionals event and another company/factory visit in fall. SCCIJ President Mroczek added: “We do not have many members there, but we want to show that Kansai is truly important for us.”

President at AGM: SCCIJ “in very good shape”

Members and advisors of SCCIJ Executive Committee with Honorary President Mr. Jean-François Paroz (third from left)

Report of the Relationship Management Subcommittee

Mr. Clerc, Head of the Relationship Management Committee (other members: C. Mazzucchelli, N. Okabe, D. Sommerhalder) reported a net increase of 21 members from 2016 to 2017, among them eight regular members, to a total number of 196. With a plus of 12 percent, the upward trend since 2009 continued for the ninth year. The average number of luncheon attendees went down from 57 in 2016 to 49 in 2017. But 65 percent of luncheon participants were SCCIJ members, eight percentage points more than in 2016.

Mr. Clerc promised that SCCIJ will continue to give its members the best value by sharing a lot of useful information and creating a more personal catered information. Also, the SCCIJ would plan to expand further its membership base by being more segmented in its approach. In particular, the SCCIJ would like to rely on direct recommendations from members as well as more active engagement of the Executive Committee and of the chamber’s secretariat.



Text and photos: Martin Fritz for SCCIJ

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