Wong prepares the way for IBLAC exchanges

Michael Wong always saves a weekend in early autumn each year when the International Business Leaders' Advisory Council (IBLAC) for the Mayor of Shanghai is held in the city.

Wong, managing partner of Talent at EY Asia Pacific, took up a part-time job at IBLAC nearly two decades ago.

At the IBLAC meeting he spends a morning to make sure presentations in both English and Chinese are displayed properly at the plenary session.

Both Wong and Albert Ng, former EY China chairman, serve as IBLAC consultants this year and Wong believes strongly that the annual gathering provides valuable insights for the city in a meaningful way.

Wong also uses his spare time to read the advisories and proposals from leading multinational executives.

Since 2009, outstanding papers have been selected and presented during the plenary session.

Wong took up the work to pick out top-rate advice and always sets aside extra time and energy to delve deep into the reading material.

"It's been very fulfilling to participate in the meeting in this way and I feel deeply attached to IBLAC and all the members that keep returning every year," he said.

"It's a rewarding learning experience for me to get to know about the best practices in other parts of the world through these advisory proposals and I hope Shanghai can adopt these recommendations," he added.

Ng entrusted Wong with IBLAC relevant affairs more than two decades ago, and this became his top priority.

The annual meeting was inaugurated in 1988 by then Shanghai Mayor Zhu Rongji, who later became China's premier, with the idea to draw inspiration from external contributors and learn insights from various perspectives to boost the city's economic development.

Eoghan McMillan, then Asia Pacific managing partner at accounting firm Arthur Andersen, first approached multinationals to learn about their willingness to attend the meeting with the Shanghai mayor.

IBLAC's founding meeting took place in October 1989 and it became routine for the mayor to take time to meet with the executives and seek advice from the think tank.

Ng and McMillan have been deeply involved in preparations for the meetings since then.

After 36 years, IBLAC members now include 44 companies from 15 countries, spanning a wide range of industries that include manufacturing, banking, insurance, biopharmaceuticals, energy conservation and environmental protection, financial auditing, and business consulting.

He felt there was a long-term commitment between the city and the executives as they kept returning for their devotion to the city's better development.

His experience is also a reflection of Shanghai's development over the decades.

Ahead of the IBLAC plenary session, executives would be offered opportunities to witness Shanghai's latest urban infrastructure such as port facilities and maglev trains.

In recent years, Suzhou Creek tours, contemporary dance performances and ping-pong games with robots have been staged for chiefs of multinational companies to further reflect the city's soft power.

He also noted that the meeting had now evolved into an exchange platform for best practices in different parts of the world.

"In the past, the meeting was mostly about introducing foreign practices, but now it's more about mutual exchanges and learning from each other," he added.

In his view, with urban governance becoming a hot topic globally, Shanghai has a lot of ideas and viewpoints to offer the rest of the world.

"We have been putting more thought into deciding new themes together and finding better proposals so that we can give the council something fresh every year to make the city more appealing in the international realm," he added.

Over the decades, executives have been continually putting effort and energy into facilitating connections between Shanghai and leading multinationals.

One of Wong's most impressive experiences with IBLAC was in October 2021 when the council held its first virtual meeting.

Michael Diekmann, chairman of the supervisory board of Allianz, and then IBLAC chairman, opened the meeting with the greeting: "Good morning, good afternoon, good evening."

"Many of them overcame the time gap and technology glitches to participate in the virtual meeting, and I could feel the participants' long-standing commitment and devotion as they all held a favorable outlook for Shanghai," Wong said.

(The article is based on a story carried by the Foreign Affairs Office of the Shanghai government.)