Talent challenges and how regional treasury centers are leveraging local knowledge top the list of agenda items as The NeuGroup’s Asia Treasurers’ Peer Group (ATPG) gears up for its meeting on October 10, 2012 in Singapore.
The ATPG meeting will be hosted by Merck and sponsored by Deutsche Bank. The group has developed a robust agenda based on the current and pressing needs and interests of the group. In an effort to build further familiarity among the members, the meeting will lead off with a member profile, which will give an overview of the company and its Asia treasury operation, as well as other introductions and latest projects.
The group generally is challenged in certain markets by low unemployment and rising wages, which is driving difficulty in acquiring and retaining talented employees. Therefore there will be a roundtable discussion to identify how members have been addressing this problem.
There is an emerging trend toward regional treasury centers deploying more of their local knowledge and familiarity in more strategic ways. As HQ treasury continues to struggle to do more with less and as emerging markets grow in importance, the role of the regional treasury team is likely to play a larger, more strategic role. In this session, the group will compare notes on their strategic vision for their regional treasury centers. This will be immediately followed by a session where one member, a multinational heavy equipment maker, will describe how the company has utilized its toolbox to go beyond treasury and strategically support the local businesses.
Shifting to a more macro topic, the group will end day one with a session led by meeting host, Deutsche Bank, on the economic landscape in Asia. The global economy is increasingly dependent on Asian markets and recent slowdowns have been creating concern for companies on all continents. This session will look to the impact of Asia on Asia as well as the impact to Asia from more troubled markets in Europe and North America.
The second day will feature a session on the fundamental treasury activity of cash pooling led by one member who will review the company’s global pooling structure. The session will also include a discussion on a new pilot program in China intended to give some relief to cross-border pooling of the RMB. The day and meeting will end with an Open Forum where members will discuss whatever is on their mind that is not on the agenda.