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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
 Dear Member
Thank you to everyone who participated at our AGM held at the Sheraton last month; it certainly set the scene for the enjoyable networking evening that followed. Once again our grateful thanks go to RSM Advisory, loyal supporters and sponsors of these two events for the past 6 years.
We now have our new committee on board and active, so special welcome to new members David O’Callaghan, David Old and Rex Hancock who have joined the committee this year. Existing members who were re-elected are Cris Dunning, Grant Signal, David Mills, Howard Hill, Khun Sutipong Ittipong and Doug Ozanne and our two vice presidents are Cris Dunning and David Mills. Many thanks also to Karlene Davis our ex-officio NZTE representative and to Gary White for continuing in his important advisory role to the committee.
As the newly elected President, I look forward to working with our committee during the coming year to provide the Chamber with an interesting and valued mix of activities and services. At this stage, we have not finalised specific roles on the committee but will update you once we have these worked out.
I would like to thank Cris Dunning for his work as President for the past 4 years. He has made a significant contribution to the Chamber by initiating a transition from a purely social Chamber to one with a greater business focus. The Chamber has started to develop relationships with other organisations regionally, as well as within Thailand, and has a more clearly defined community support program. We will continue to build on all of this whilst still maintaining our reputation as a friendly, relaxed, sociable chamber.
We have continued to enjoy strong membership and generous support from our sponsors despite some very tough economic times. Your support has enabled the Chamber to continue to be effective and pursue a number of new initiatives that will provide long term benefits to our members and the community. We believe members have played an important role in identifying new members and sponsors by actively promoting the Chamber. We look forward to your continuing support.
In terms of sponsorship we are now looking to confirm sponsors for our 2010 calendar that includes a principal Chamber sponsorship package, Corporate Knight functions and other one-off functions yet to be announced. Sponsors now gain increased and extended recognition of their support to the Chamber via the website, directory, newsletter and the sponsor’s display board at our Chamber functions.
The NZ Chamber and the NZ Society will again be hosting next year’s annual NZ Black & White Ball. Please note that it will be held in early March rather than February. This was done to avoid conflicts with other Balls held around that time. Planning for the event is already well advanced and members who wish to secure Ball tickets should keep an eye on our website for further information as tickets will be on sale in January. We are currently seeking additional sponsors for this event.
This month’s Corporate Knight networking function is our last formal event for the year and our sponsor for the evening is once again IPS Asia. IPS is a success story for fellow kiwi Kevan Fahey who has, over the last 12 years, developed his own construction company into a very successful business unit that operates in both Bangkok and the resort regions of southern Thailand.
We look forward to seeing you all at the Sheraton on the 26th.
Kind regards,
Nikki Cox
President
NOVEMBER CHAMBER NETWORKING EVENTS
Corporate Knight Networking Event
Thursday, 26th NOVEMBER 2009 6.30pm
@ Sheraton Grande
Kindly sponsored by
INTERNATIONAL PROJECT SERVICES (ASIA) LTD
International Quality & Commitment Local Knowledge & Resources
- Main Contractor
- Design and Build Services
- Turnkey Projects
International Project Services (Asia) Ltd is a fully integrated construction company established in the Kingdom of Thailand for over ten years.
Our focus is to deliver quality projects within budget and program, working with the client to achieve their project expectations.
Our Team brings a wealth of knowledge to all areas of construction from the initial concept design through to construction completion and the handover of the project to the operations team.
International Project Services (Asia) Ltd provides these premium services to all our clients, combining International Standards with an extensive working knowledge and understanding of business practices across the Kingdom.
Other Events
NZ Society Christmas Party
28th November @ Rose Garden
 The NZ Society is holding a family Christmas Party and Dinner at the Rose Garden.
The Rose Garden is a beautiful property about 45 minutes outside of Bangkok with large grounds and hotel accommodation.
KIWI CORNER
Some recent Kiwi Snippets and Kiwis in the news:
Sheep Racing All Over Baa The Shouting
They're highly prized, well trained and have busy schedules.
They are the Racing Baa Blacks and they proved a hit at Timaru's Get to the Point festival on Saturday but it's been a long hard road, according to trainer David Cone.
After 30 years as a sheep and wool consultant, Mr Cone had the idea of putting sheep on a race course two years ago and it's gone from to strength to strength, as his racing team is now fully booked.
He wasn't giving away any training tips but said his team of woolly racers gets a daily workout at his Halswell property when they're not touring.
Twenty sheep make up the racing contingent and the bets were coming in fast when they made five starts at the Pleasant Point Rugby Club fundraiser on Saturday.
Kiwis Ranked 10th Happiest In Survey
New Zealand has ranked highly in an international study of wealth and happiness, but we are not quite as happy as the Aussies, according to a survey by a London-based think tank. Nevertheless, New Zealanders are among the best in the world for volunteering to help others.
The survey, by the Legatum Institute, New Zealand finished 10th on the institute's prosperity index, behind Australia, Canada, Holland, and the United States. New Zealand performed averagely in economic fundamentals (27th out of 104) but was ranked first in social capital, the institute said.
"Trusting and willing to help strangers, close knit New Zealanders display the highest level of social capital of all countries surveyed. "More than nine out of 10 New Zealanders believe they can rely on friends and family... the country has the second highest volunteering, with 44 percent having donated their time in the last year."
New Zealand also ranked well in entrepreneurship and innovation, democratic institutions, education, health and safety and security.
Kiwi the World's Fastest Tap Dancer
A Wellington stockbroker has reclaimed his spot as the world's fastest tap dancer - beating his previous record by almost double.
To prepare for his next attempt Mr Adams said he trained with two-time world mountain running champion Melissa Moon.
The Guinness World Record team used slow-motion video footage to count the taps and eventually reached a tally of 1056 taps in a minute.
Mr Adams began tap dancing as a child when his mother put him in classes to overcome a leg deformity which saw his legs bound in callipers and destined for surgery.
Poms Reckon New Zild Accent's Rilly Choice
Kiwis have the most socially attractive English accent outside of the motherland, eh.
According to a BBC survey, the New Zealand accent is one of most charming and prestigious English accents outside of Britain.
New Zealand English came in ahead of Australian, American and most regional British accents in the study published in the international Journal of Sociolinguistics.
More than 5000 respondents from throughout Britain completed an online survey rating the prestige and social attractiveness of 34 different accents of English speakers.
Standard English, Scottish and Irish were rated top in the survey, which was analysed by researchers from the University of Wales Centre for Language and Communication Research.
New Zealand English rated highly for both attractiveness and prestige.
It was the sixth most "socially attractive" accent, ahead of the Queen's English and well ahead of Australian in 13th and American English in 15th place.
New Zealand ranked 7th on prestige, above American English in 8th and Australian which came in at 11th. The Queen's English got the highest ranking for prestige.
100% PURE NZ BRAND TOPS SURVEY
TOURISM: Tourism New Zealand's efforts at promoting the country with its "100 Percent Pure New Zealand" slogan have paid off, topping an international branding survey.
The survey, published by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation and European Travel Commission, asked 165 national tourism organisations which countries they considered to be good at destination branding.
New Zealand topped the nominations, ahead of India, Spain, Australia, Dubai and Ireland.
Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive George Hickton said the result was a "fantastic" reinforcement of the effort and perseverance that had gone into building the 100 Percent Pure New Zealand brand.
NZ BIOFUEL START-UPS MAKING PROGRESS
Biofuel entrepreneur LanzaTech says its pilot plant at the New Zealand Steel works has successfully used microbes to convert waste gas into high-octane ethanol.
The biofuel company said the trials have been successful, yielding ethanol produced at a low cost,.
LanzaTech eventually aims to license its technology to firms in the industrial bio-commodities market, and a co-founder of the company, Sean Simpson, said its waste gas-to-ethanol process had gained attention from companies in China and the USA.
He estimated that the world's steel mills generated enough carbon monoxide emissions to produce 227 billion litres of ethanol a year, and the process captured emissions equivalent to half a tonne of carbon dioxide for each tonne of steel produced.
LanzaTech was last month named Green Technology Innovator of the Year at the Frost and Sullivan Asia Pacific Industrial Technologies Awards.
In Marlborough, another biofuel start-up, Aquaflow Bionomics, has started a fund-raising programme in Australia for the first of up to 16 pilot plants to demonstrate what it describes as its unique algae fuel technology. Oil giants Exxon Mobil and BP and other global energy companies are similarly investing heavily in developing algae-based fuels, with almost all focusing on extracting lipids from algae grown in controlled environments, such bio-reactors.
But Aquaflow has developed technology to harvest "wild algae" found in municipal sewage ponds, farm outflows and polluted waterways and either convert it into "green crude" or refine it into other biofuels and chemicals.
CHAMBER UPDATES
New Committee
At last months AGM a new committee was voted in with some new faces to bring in new ideas to the Chamber.. We would like to congratulate our new president Nikki Cox and look forward to her leadership over the next 12 months. The 2009-10 committee is:
President & Foreign Chambers Representative:- Ms Nikki Cox Strategum Co., Ltd
Committee Members:-
Mr. Cris Dunning Aurecon Consulting (Thailand) Co. Ltd. (Vice President)
Mr. David Mills D&L Consultants Co., Ltd. (Vice President)
Mr. Grant Signal IAG Insurance (Thailand) Ltd (Treasurer)
Mr. Howard Hill AgriSource Company Limited
Mr. Douglas Ozanne Crown Worldwide
Mr. David O'Callaghan Bangkok Bank PLC
Khun Sutipong Ittipong Siam City Factoring PLC
Mr. David Old DO IT Consultants Co., Ltd.
Mr. Rex Hancock Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Public Co., Ltd.
We would like to welcome the following members to the Chamber .
Do-IT Consultants Co., Ltd
 Representative: Mr David Old
Business Type Consulting & Advisory Services
Marque Consulting Group
 Representative: Mr Sebastian Beaumont
Business Type: Public Affairs Consultancy
Travelling to Singapore?
Check out what business events are on by looking at the New Zealand Chamber of Commerce for Singapore website. They have a monthly newsletter listing major events in the city . You can find the events listing HERE.
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Chamber News 
NEW ZEALAND THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 
