More than 400 of the foremost leaders from across Asia and 500 local Government officials as well as top executives from Viet Nam’s largest businesses are expected to attend the Horasis Asia Meeting 2018 in Binh Duong Province next week.

Convened by Horasis: The Global Visions Community, the meeting will be held in the high-tech development zone of Binh Duong New City from November 25-27.

Tran Thanh Liem, chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said that Binh Duong, which is co-hosting the meeting with Becamex IDC Corp, and local agencies were working together to ensure that the event would be organised successfully.

“Preparation has been on schedule, including preparation for the content of the programme, as well as accommodations and logistics for delegates,” he said.

Information about the event has been widely disseminated in mass media.

The forum is expected to help the province promote its potential with international partners, improve its management capacity, and apply advanced technologies to implement its Smart City, Liem said.

The event will offer local enterprises an opportunity to network with international partners who are senior founders, general directors and CEOs of leading companies from around the world.

It will also promote trade and investment of countries in Asia in general and Viet Nam in particular.

The forum will include four plenary sessions and 35 dialogue sessions that will include speeches made by leading speakers from the around the world.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the rest of Asia are increasingly interconnected, creating a host of new opportunities by fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, according to Horasis, an independent international organisation committed to inspiring the future.

Having just celebrated 50 years of deepening unity and rising wealth, the 10 nations of ASEAN are poised to craft a compelling vision for its future generations in a connected age.

Viet Nam, the host of the Horasis Asia Meeting, is ASEAN’s rising star, approaching 7 per cent economic growth in 2018, with continued growth expected in the years to come.

Binh Duong New City, where the event will take place, is only a 45-minute drive from HCM City’s Tan Son Nhat airport.

As Viet Nam’s emerging gateway for technology, trade and services, Binh Duong is well positioned to serve as a commercial hub for ASEAN economies.

As of September, Binh Duong had attracted more than 3,430 FDI projects with more than US$31.4 billion of registered funds, ranking among the top three in the country in FDI attraction, after HCM City and Ha Noi.

The province’s road infrastructure and its 29 industrial parks have also developed strongly in recent years, encouraging foreign companies to invest in the province.

Last year, FDI companies contributed to 48.5 per cent of the province’s investments and over 82.8 per cent of its exports, according to the province’s Department of Planning and Investment.

Binh Duong, the newest member of the World Technopolis Association, was chosen to host the 2018 World Technopolis Association Summit last month.

Binh Duong Province last month became the first and only province in Viet Nam to be named as one of the world’s Smart21 communities of 2018 by the New York-based Intelligent Community Forum, a non-profit policy research organisation focused on job creation and economic development in the broadband economy.

Nguyen Van Hung, chairman of the board of Becamex IDC Corp, said the province’s reputation as an attractive area for investment had lured many multinationals.

For instance, the industrial parks of a joint venture between Becamex IDC and Singapore-based Sembcorp Development, which specialises in urban development, have attracted over $9 billion in investment from 630 businesses in 60 countries and territories.

The annual Horasis Asia Meeting is Asia’s premier gathering of the region’s most senior leaders in business and government.

The meeting is the ideal platform to explore and advance regional cooperation, impact investing, and sustainable growth.

The event aims to present a systemic view of activities affecting the drivers of Asia’s economic success and how Asian businesses interact regionally as well as globally.

The meeting, whose location rotates annually, was held in Bangkok in 2016 and in Kolkata, India last year.

In addition to the Horasis Asia Meeting, Horasis also hosts the Horasis Global Meeting as well as other regional events focusing on India and China.

The meetings are held to advance solutions to the most critical challenges facing corporations today. — VNS