On the afternoon of March 18, 2021, the AICM Annual General Meeting was held at the Hyatt on the Bund in Shanghai. All AICM board members and senior representatives from nearly 30 member companies attended the meeting.
AICM Chairman Jeff Zhu welcomed all the participants to the Annual General Meeting, with a review of AICM achievements in an unprecedented year 2020 during pandemic. AICM contributed to the fight of COVID-19 by donating fund and medical supplies. In 2021, AICM will continue to monitor and promote its goals and priorities. Jeff encouraged all chemical manufactures to engage the Responsible Care® program and Open-to-Public (OTP) events, to fulfill the commitment of Responsible Care® Global Charter (RCGC) and to advocate the innovation, sustainable & healthier society. AICM will also continuously initiate high-level dialogue, propose position paper, implement the best practice, and guide a healthy development of chemical industry in China, in connection with officials, industrial leaders, chemical parks, and other stakeholders.
Meanwhile, on behalf of all AICM directors and staff, Jeff Zhu thanked Mr. Ming Cheng Chien for his contributions as board member and deputy chair. Mr. Qian Ming Chien will join the advisory board and continue to support the work of AICM.Finally, Jeff Zhu expressed gratitude for member company employees, who have been nominated as “outstanding contributors” in the meeting.
AICM Executive Director, Beryl Ma, delivered the administrative report to all delegates at the Annual General Meeting. She summarized that the work of the past year was instrumental in implementing AICM goals and objectives. To market AICM effectively, to provide more visibility, to enlarge membership scale, and to continue provide high quality services/deliverables to our members are still the AICM major objectives for 2021.Director Ma then presented the 2020 annual financial report on actual expenses vs. the previously proposed budget, current cash flow status and the proposed budget for 2021, as well as carried out new major projects according to members’ demand. The Audit Report 2020 was also adopted during the annual meeting.
Ms. Karin XU, IPAC chair, Ms. Rachel Wu, PRCC deputy Chair, on behalf of Chair Ms. Susan Jiang, Mr. Xiao Li as RCC chair, Richard Yu, GIAC Chair reported the 2020 achievement and 2021 plans and major events.
l There are about 1218 participants from 59 membership companies involved in activities and key on-line meetings. IPAC new KPIs introduced. MOU signed with China Chemical Safety Associations where both parties agree to strengthen cooperation in regulatory aspects. In 2021, IPAC will continue active engagements with MEM and MEE. And enhancing collaboration with global industry associations and extended dialogues with policy makers to address members’ concerns in future.
l During the pandemic, there were still 14 member companies joined Open-to-Public (OTP) Day campaign themed Chemistry’s Contributions to People’s Health. The major exposure of OTP had been well-organized through social media and general media. Meanwhile, the construction of AICM’s social media platform was improved via constant maintenance and update. In 2021, PRCC will be focusing on several key events to promote the branding of AICM. PRCC will continue to lead a series of sustainable activity on OTP day in theme of chemical innovation, sustainable & healthier society, and carbon neutrality. Meanwhile, PRCC will initiate OTP event in Zhenjiang Chemical Park, as well as the reshaping of Plastic Advocacy sub-committee.
l RCC chair reviewed the major events and abundant activities acquired by RC committee in 2020, and presented overall work plan in 2021. Besides the routine tasks such as capacity building, RCC would pay more attention to the common issues among members and delivered a consistent voice as a whole. Also, RCC will zoom in several special tasks in 2021: Zhenjiang OTP event, working with PRCC that would continue the path to improve the safety chemical management in local companies; follow-up actions from “guidelines for the investigation and control of safety risks in hazardous chemical enterprises” project that form internal memo based on members’ experiences and practices and try to solve their problems by inviting relevant experts to exchange opinions. And to establish the warehouse assessment system as expansion of CRSAS.
l GIAC highlighted major achievements such as chemical park forum, high level Meeting in Hainan, workshops, and Industry Affairs Quarterly Reports. 2021 plan includes 3 parts: organizing events such as CCIP and CPCIC and meetings with Chemical Parks to know local industrial policies; focusing on organizing related trainings on government relations; drafting AICM carbon neutrality report, as well as updating quarterly reports on policies and organize policy related internal sharing meetings. GIAC also reported the highlights of government working report.
Huang Feng, President of Shanghai Foreign Investment Association, delivered a speech expressing his gratitude to AICM and member companies for their support. Mr. Wang Youyou, former expert in Ministry of Commerce of China (MOFCOM), shared his expertise and experience in dealing with Bilateral Investment Treaty, especially in the aspects of China-US and China-EU. His sharing topic on the National Foreign Investment Negative List and the background sparked a discussion among members.
Total of 78 employees of member companies have been awarded as "outstanding contributors" in recognition of their great contributions to AICM in 2021. Every successful AICM activity has been actively supported by the employees of our member companies. While working for the company, they also contributed to AICM and even China's chemical industry. Award-presenting guests are from the Board of Directors and Advisory board.