ASEAN-Korea Centre (AKC) and Korea-ASEAN Forum Association (KAFA), and Global Compact Network Korea (GCNK) jointly held the Fair Player Club Seminar for Compliance and Business Ethics with ASEAN-Korea Centre and Korea-ASEAN Forum Association was held on Friday, January 26, 2018 at Conference Room on the 3rd Floor, Seoul Square Building, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

The seminar, which was the last seminar of Fair Player Club’s third cycle, shared best business practices on compliance and introduced ASEAN anti-corruption law and policy while seeking corresponding strategies, with experts in Korea and abroad and attendees from companies with ASEAN branches. ASEAN market, which includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei, is a dynamic market with GDP of 2.6 trillion dollars and annual growth rate of 5%, and is increasingly gaining importance in Korean economy.

About 70 people participated in this event, including Mr. Suk-bum Park, Secretary-General of the GCNK; Mr. Sang-won Park, Director of Korea-ASEAN Forum Association; Mr. ChewKong Lum, Senior Executive Vice President & CFO of Siemens Ltd. Seoul; Mr. Sung-pil Um, Deputy Head of Trade and Investment Unit at ASEAN-Korea Centre and Mr. Maurice Burke, Partner at Hogan Lovells Singapore.

In his opening speech, Mr. Suk-bum Park said that “as ASEAN, which accounts for 8.7% of population worldwide, achieves more sustainable growth through liberalization of trade and investment, it has become an attractive market for business. I hope Korean companies set good examples as foreign companies in ASEAN countries based on UN Global Compact’s values and principles.”

Mr. Sang-won Park said that “Korea-ASEAN market is rising as an alternative to Chinese market. Since many Korean companies are entering ASEAN market, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is very important for sustainable development in the future.”

Mr. ChewKong Lum emphasized that efforts to establish corporate compliance system is not a mere consumption, but rather an investment, saying that “Siemens has invested great amount of resources and manpower in compliance and business ethics after 2006 crisis. This allowed us to become a company that customers trust and respect today.”

Following the opening speeches, Mr. Sung-pil Um analyzed ASEAN member states’ business environment and presented current state of affairs and implications of ASEAN Economic Community under the theme of ‘Business Environment & Opportunities in ASEAN Countries’. Mr. Um explained that after the declaration of the ‘New Southern Policy’ by Korean government, which focuses on strengthening the relationship between Korea and ASEAN, Korean companies are more interested in ASEAN now more than ever. Mr. Um emphasized that ASEAN area is very diverse in many elements, from race, religion, culture to business pace and income gap. Therefore, when entering ASEAN market, companies must follow new business trends and break away from past methods of entering the market as production bases.

Mr. Maurice Burke, Partner at Hogan Lovells Singapore, introduced anti-corruption trends and current progress of each country in ASEAN. Mr. Burke explained trends in ‘strengthening corporate liability in corrupt acts’, ‘increased importance of Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPA)’, ‘greater third-party risks’ as shown in amended anti-corruption law of three ASEAN countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam). He explained that “there has been many improvements regarding corporate governance and compliance in ASEAN. Without compliance system, companies may be prosecuted by the authorities. Therefore, their risk management procedure should match global standards.”

Afterwards, Ms. Geul Kwak, Associate Researcher of Global Compact Network Korea introduced <Fair Player Club Compliance Package – ASEAN> suggesting ways for companies how to utilize it. The Compliance Package presents laws and policies of ASEAN member states. Ms. Kwak introduced ‘ADB OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative’, a major anti-corruption cooperation in ASEAN, and illustrated ASEAN member states’ anti-corruption laws and policies, cases of corporate violation and responses. Moreover, Ms. Kwak asked Korean companies to prepare in advance, as Vietnam and Indonesia, where many Korean companies have branched out, recently strengthened anti-corruption laws through amendments.

During ‘Best Compliance Practices’ session, LoDiCS, one of the representative Korean companies in ASEAN market, and Siemens, an exemplary company on compliance and business ethics, shared their business cases. Mr. Sang-joon Lee, President of LoDiCS, with his many years of expertise in business, illustrated problems that Korean companies may face in ASEAN, and how to respond to such problems. Mr. Lee emphasized that companies must prepare solutions to corruption risks before entering ASEAN market, and suggested three possible solutions: ‘symbiosis and co-prosperity’, ‘development of corruption response strategy’, ‘improvement of structural transparency’. Lastly, Mr. Jong-kun Park, Regional Compliance Officer of Siemens Ltd. Seoul illustrated the process of building Siemens’ compliance system through three virtuous cycles: Prevention, Detection, Response. He also presented Siemens’ top management’s commitment and know-how on establishing anti-corruption system and combating corruption.

The last session, ‘Introduction of Fair Player Club and Fair Play Pledge’ was presented by Ms. Angela Joo-hyun Kang, Founder/Executive President of Global Competitiveness Empowerment Forum. Fair Player Club is hosting <2018 Fair Player Club Summit and Fair Play Pledge Ceremony> on Wednesday, March 7th at Grand Hyatt Seoul. The event is an international conference with speakers such as Drago Kos, Chair of the OECD Working Group on Bribery and participants from Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission and other government ministries. The Fair Play Pledge Ceremony, where Fair Player Club Pledge companies and organizations will gather together to support transparent and fair market competition, is also scheduled. We invite all our members and pledge companies to join us in this event.