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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Dear Member
This month is a busy one for the Chamber with several key events scheduled to take place.
Of keen interest to the NZ community in Bangkok will be the signing of the ASEAN-Aust-NZ Free Trade Agreement which takes place in Hua Hin on Friday 27 February. In the current global economic climate this could be of immense value to NZ over the next few years. The NZ Minister of Trade, Mr Tim Groser, will be taking part in the formalities and he is being joined by a delegation of senior business people from New Zealand.
On Thursday 26 February, the NZ Chamber and NZ Trade & Enterprise will be hosting an ASEAN Business Outlook Seminar. The morning session is for the benefit of the trade delegation from NZ but for the afternoon we have extended an invitation to our members to join the open section of the event that runs from 3pm to 6pm. Information on this event and the two key note speakers who will be addressing the Seminar is contained in the newsletter.
After the Seminar we will be hosting our usual Corporate Knight networking evening. This is being co-sponsored by NZ Society, NZTCC and the Sheraton as a special thank you for all our sponsors who have contributed toward the funding of this years NZ Black & White Ball. Without the assistance from our sponsors the Ball would not be viable and particularly in these difficult financial times, their generous support is greatly appreciated. We will also be joined on the evening by our Trade Minister, colleagues and business associates from NZ Embassy and NZTE and the business delegation from NZ.
On Monday 23 February, the Prime Minister Khun Abhisit Vejjajiva will be addressing a luncheon meeting hosted by the JFCCT. This is an excellent opportunity to hear the PMs ongoing plans for getting Thailand back on track and after his address he will take part in a Q&A session with delegates. This luncheon is open to members of the Chamber so please contact our executive director if you would like to attend.
Last month I mentioned that we were investigating the opportunity to form an alliance with other NZ Chambers in South East Asia. We have progressed this further and we now intend linking IT infrastructure together, as a starting point, so that improved communication links can be established.
Last but definitely not least we have the NZ Black and White Ball on the last day of the month. Both the NZ Society and the NZ Chamber have ensured that the planning and organizing that has taken place behind the scenes will make this an outstanding evening. For those who have not yet purchased tickets there a still a few remaining.
We trust you will be able to join us at these events and as usual we look forward to your company at our friendly networking evening on 26th.
Kind regards
Cris Dunning
President
FEBRUARY CHAMBER NETWORKING EVENTS
CORPORATE KNIGHT NETWORKING EVENT
Thursday, 26th February 2009 @ 6.00pm
Sheraton Grande
Kindly sponsored by
  
A special Chamber event on the 26th February at Ballroom 1, at the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit Hotel, from 6pm sponsored by New Zealand Thai Chamber of Commerce and New Zealand Society
The New Zealand Minster of Trade and senior business delegates will be joining the event along with Chamber members.
The event will feature New Zealand wine and BBQ food supplied by the Sheraton Grande Hotel.
Other Events
ASEAN BUSINESS OUTLOOK SEMINAR
Thursday, 26th February 2009 3pm
Sheraton Grande
The New Zealand Thai Chamber of Commerce and New Zealand Trade & Enterprise invites members to join senior New Zealand business leaders at this ASEAN Business Outlook Seminar
Programme:
Credit Crisis: Will South East Asia Weather The Storm?
Presenter Mr. Jan Friederich, Senior Economist and Deputy Product Manager, Country Forecasting Services, the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Retailing in South East Asia: Trends, Opportunities and Challenges
Presenter Mr. Steven HL Goh, Executive Chairman of Retail Asia Publishing and CEO of the Business Company.
Date: 26th February 2009
Time: 3pm-6pm (Registration from 2.45pm)
Venue: Sukhumvit Room, Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit Hotel
Cost: NONE - Booking is Required please email
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Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce in Thailand luncheon with H.E. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva
Date: 23rd February 2009
Time: 11.15 14.30 hrs.
Venue: Centara Grand Convention Centre, Central World, Bangkok
Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce in Thailand luncheon with H.E. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva
Ticket price 1,500 Baht per individual seat, 15,000 Baht per table of ten
New Zealand Alumni Association Get Together
Tentatively it is planned for Saturday 21 February, 2009.
Venue: Rose Garden Hotel
New Zealand Alumni Association get-together between the NZ Embassy Staff (both Kiwis and Thais) and the NZAA Committee at the Rose Garden. (Overnight stay activity) Tentatively it is planned for Saturday 21 February, 2009.
The venue will be at Rose Garden Hotel accommodation
The related costs are:
- for Sat. 21 Feb. 2009 plus breakfast for the 22 Feb. is Bht. 1,200 per head.
- Get together Dinner on Sat. Night (21) is Bht. 550 per head.
- Cultural show is complimentary (at 2 pm. on either 21 or 22 Feb) - Cost of rooms (2 pax) for the overnight is 1200b NZAA would like to invite NZTCC members and committee to join the event.
NEW ZEALAND BLACK & WHITE BALL FEBRUARY 28th 2009
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KIWI CORNER
Some recent Kiwi Snippets and Quotes:
Henry, at 111, becomes a first-time dad
Nine of 11 eggs laid by his lover Mildred hatched at the Southland Museum at the weekend, with the remaining two due last night. The baby tuatara, whose ancestors go back 220 million years, were all running around and doing well, chuffed museum tuatara curator Lindsay Hazley said. Henry, a resident at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery since 1970, hit the world headlines in March when he finally proved his manhood at age 111. Mildred subsequently laid 12 eggs, with 11 surviving.
Henry had been uninterested in sex for the entire time he had been in captivity. He had been well-known for his aggression and for 15 years was kept in solitary confinement because he did not get on with other tuatara. But after a cancer growth was removed from his bottom he finally got in the mood.
NZ Scientist to be acclaimed for work on verifying art treasures
The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) and the Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie are pleased to announce that Robin J. H. Clark will be the recipient of the inaugural Franklin-Lavoisier Prize on Wednesday, January 28, 2009, at the Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie in Paris. Clark is the Sir William Ramsay Professor of Chemistry at University College London and the pioneer in the use of raman microscopy for pigment identification on art and artifacts. The award will be presented at the Chimie et Art conference at the Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie.
Robin J. H. Clark is Sir William Ramsay Professor, University College London. He studied at the Universities of Canterbury and Otago and received a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at University College London. His research in inorganic chemistry and spectroscopy -- more recently on metal-metal bonded complexes; mixed-valence chemistry; infrared, Raman and resonance Raman spectroscopy; matrix isolation spectroscopy; spectroelectrochemistry; and pigment studies mainly by Raman microscopy -- has led to the publication of more than 500 scientific papers, 3 books, and 36 edited books.
The award will be presented at the Chimie et Art conference at the Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie.
Taranaki terrier to get UK's highest honour
Britain's highest award for animal bravery is to be made posthumously to George, Manaia's heroic Jack Russell terrier.
He died protecting five children from pit bull dogs in April 2007.
The PDSA Gold Medal will be presented to the late George's owner Alan Gay by the British High Commission at the Manaia town hall next month. High Commissioner George Ferguson will be involved and the event may be filmed by a BBC television crew.
The award is the animal equivalent of the George Medal, which is the United Kingdom's highest civilian bravery award. George of Manaia was nominated by un-named Taranaki people.
Gift of the gab.
The New Zealand team has won the World Schools' Debating Championship in Athens, Greece, after a convincing victory over England.
The team beat England by a 6-1 margin, proposing the motion "That all illegal immigrants should receive amnesty".
Speaking from Greece, team captain Maria English of Wellington's Samuel Marsden Collegiate told NZPA the win had capped off an exciting competition.
"It's fantastic, it's a great feeling," she said.
"The whole competition was the most amazing experience and getting the chance to represent our country has just been fantastic."
New Zealand were narrow runners-up to England at the 2008 Championships, losing in a 5-4 split decision in the Grand Final. New Zealand had the 1st, 2nd and 3rd ranked speakers at the 2008 tournament.
On the way to the final, the team defeated Singapore, Scotland, Canada, Wales, Peru, the Netherlands, Chile, Bangladesh and Germany.
It was the first time since 1995 that New Zealand had won the championships.
SUFFERING PASSWORD FATIGUE?
There is a common strain of amnesia floating around the desks of those sun-kissed and briefly stress-free workers fresh from summer holidays.
Frequently this affliction causes normal, intelligent employees to lose all grasp of their faculties when confronted with a password prompt screen on the first day back at work.
They simply cannot remember their passwords and they have to call a helpdesk to reset them.
While the average business user juggles at least six passwords, according to security studies, this number may be amplified to more than 20 when taking into account the increasing use of social networking sites and daily online usage of web-based utilities and entertainment such as banking, gambling, news sites, private email, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace.
That's without remembering personal identification numbers, or PINs, for bank cards, credit cards, telephone accounts and other household utilities or service companies that demand proof of identity when dealing with them over the phone or electronically.
It's not surprising that the instances of password resetting are 10per cent higher in the first three weeks of January than any other time of the year. According to Prodigy Communications, which services more than 500 corporate clients, password amnesia and mismanagement eat into productivity.
The demand for more sophisticated password protection systems is becoming pervasive.
Mr Brady suggests that all companies invest time in educating staff on the importance of password security and management.
One security professional, Stephen Gillies, suggests using "muscle memory" to create a sound but recallable password. "A pattern on the keyboard can jog your memory, TgbyhN0011 is an easy to remember pattern on a standard keyboard, for example," he says.
Mr Gillies, who is a member of the System Administrators Guild of Australia, also warns that saving passwords to mobile phones as a backup can also backfire.
Tips for keeping access secure
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Never use the same password twice. If you must reuse pins and passwords, group them into logical categories which have a similar level of security. You may use a similar password for your Gmail and Yahoo IM accounts, but the PIN for your credit card should be different to any other PIN you have. For passwords with a low level of security, like website registration logins where there's no risk of your identity being compromised, use something easy to remember.
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Mix it up. A strong password has upper and lower case characters with at least one number.
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Give it rhythm. For a random-looking password use the first letters of two phrases you will remember, like Mhall3bf (Mary had a little lamb 3 bags full).
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A pattern on the keyboard can jog your memory. System administrators call it muscle memory. TgbyhN0011 is an easy-to-remember pattern on a standard keyboard, for example (but don't use qwerty as your password).
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Familiarity breeds hacking. Never use your birth date, car registration, children's names or employee number. These are all easy to guess and are common.
Keep it fresh. Change your password at the same time you pay your credit card statement or mobile phone bill.
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For your eyes only. Never, ever give your password to anyone else. If you have trouble accessing a work system talk to your IT help desk. If you suspect your password is compromised, change it immediately.
Some hints from the IT desk
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Never change a password on a Friday, especially in the afternoon.
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Think of two good short words and stick some numbers/specials in the middle.
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Don't be afraid to admit that you have forgotten your password.
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If your password is going to expire while you are away, then let it expire.
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Never give out data about yourself in a public forum which can compromise you. Your full date of birth, your mother's name, your place of birth and your phone number should ideally never be available in one place.
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Never respond to requests for personal information from people you don't know. Never click on links in email unless you have very strong anti-virus filters.
Never follow links in email to any banking or other important website - always enter your website URL yourself in the browser or select it from a bookmark.
MARTINBOROUGH COMPANY TAKES TOP EXPORT AWARD
 A commitment to quality and a pricing strategy aimed at the top 5 percent of the global market, has seen Martinboroughs Palliser Estate Winery take out the prestigious Exporter of the Year Award at the NZ Post Wellington Export Awards, 2008.
Palliser Estate makes ultra premium wines under the Palliser and Pencarrow labels and exports to 23 different countries.
The winery headed off finalists Integrow Marketing Limited and RJs Licorice Limited to receive the top award at a gala dinner at the Beehive, organised by Export New Zealand and hosted by Hon. Pete Hodgson.
There were eight finalists in the running for three category awards. Chief Judge, Nigel Stirling of Gibson Sheat Lawyers said the finalists scored well in each area.
The final decisions were difficult, however, the judges agreed that the winners were exceptional and merited the Awards
The Opus International Consultants Limited, Services Exporter of The Year award was won by GNS Science a Crown Research Institute, a standalone research and consultancy company whose commercial work has increasingly included exporting.
Magritek, winner of the Gibson Sheat Lawyers Emerging Exporter of The Year Award, was established to commercialise research work carried out at Victoria University and Massey University. It exports products for industry, research and education to 80 customers, primarily in the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia and the Middle East.
During the evening a special award was made to Victor Percival a pioneer of the current two way China/New Zealand trade. This Award was an acknowledgement by fellow exporters of the great work Victor has done over 50 years in helping New Zealand recognise the potential of trading with China, which has resulted in the recent signing of the free trade agreement.
KIWI WEBSITE SHOWS OFF THE THE BEST OF NZ
With global brands drowning out New Zealand businesses, a new web directory, 'The Kiwi Story', has taken up the challenge to help everyone find great New Zealand businesses.
'The Kiwi Story' website stands out because it focuses on top quality and unique kiwi businesses that have a distinct New Zealand feel. In the words of the founder, Chee Pang, 'The Kiwi Story' is about "showing the best of what New Zealand has to offer".
"You won't find international companies like McDonalds or Starbucks on the website. We only focus on totally New Zealand businesses that provide unique and quality products and services ones that can't be easily replicated around the world," says Pang.
Among other things, the website highlights NZ 'fashion' and 'arts and culture' industries. Many of the creative businesses listed on 'The Kiwi Story' are run by talented kiwi designers but lack market exposure. One example is Anahera, a local fashion label that creates Maori-inspired 'artwear' garments, specialising in custom designed wraps and capes.
Unlike other New Zealand web directories, 'The Kiwi Story' places a limit to how many businesses can appear in each category. This makes it easy for people to find what they want since they don't have to waste time trawling through pages and pages of listings searching for unique and quality products.
'The Kiwi Story' has a wide range of categories. Some examples of the featured products and services include kiwi artwork on gumboots, eco-friendly web hosting services, New Zealand-made cell-phone radiation protectors, and native flower essences.
Many of the businesses listed on 'The Kiwi Story' give off a sense of what it means to be New Zealand. Edenhouse, a boutique hotel in Nelson, has captured the spirit of kiwi hospitality by offering a unique personalised service including dining with their guests. Despite being internationally acclaimed, it is relatively unknown in New Zealand.
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