Asia Boating Dialogue 2020
The Singapore Boating Industry Association (SBIA) in collaboration with the Hong Kong Boating Industry Association (HKBIA), is organizing the Asia Boating Dialogue 2020. This Dialogue series was inaugurated in Singapore in 2015 as ICOMIA - The Asian Dialogue. It was an invitation-only event designed to engage the Asian boating community and help it become more institutionalized and organise collective thinking. It was subsequently promoted as the Asia Boating Forum.
The Asia Boating Dialogue 2020 will run as a free-to-register webinar, in two 120-minute sessions. As previously, the event consists of country updates, followed by a Round Table Discussion. Registered viewers will also have the opportunity of submitting questions for discussion. A limited number of spots are being made available for sponsors and special interest groups.
Session One will be held on Tuesday 22 September 2020 (16:00 SGT / 08:00 UTC+8) and feature a South & Southeast Asian country grouping consisting of India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Session Two will run the following week on Tuesday 29 September 2020 (16:00 SGT / 08:00 UTC+8) and feature an East & Northeast Asian grouping consisting of China, Hong Kong & Macau, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The Asia Boating Dialogue is supported by the International Council of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA), the world body for the recreational boating industry, of which SBIA & HKBIA are members.
SBIA chair YP Loke said, “Running the Dialogue as a webinar enables us to reach a wider audience than in previous events. It will engage a new audience who would not normally travel abroad to a boat show. We need to start a conversation about boating in Asia, join the dots between countries and build a shared community with the same goals and aspirations for boating in Asia. Although Covid19 has caused borders in most countries to close, we all need to work with our respective agencies to find ways to re-open borders and revive nautical tourism”.
HKBIA chair & ICOMIA Executive Committee member Lawrence Chow said, “in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Asia Boating Dialogue provides the perfect platform for regional industry leaders to share the current difficulties they are facing and provide ideas for how the industry in Asia can adapt to the post Covid-19 era. It also opens up the opportunity to identify and understand the typical obstacles for growth in Asia. Through discussions, we will get a better insight for the current state of the industry and set the blueprint for recovery in Asia.”
ICOMIA Secretary-General Udo Kleinitz said, “We are pleased to continue supporting this event which ICOMIA initiated in 2015. We want to continue our engagement in Asia, build our base, and help our members promote the boating industry in their countries. This collaboration between two of our Asian members is a particularly welcomed move”.