SABIC participates at the 2010 Boao Forum for Asia

SABIC has again played a prominent role this year at what is fast becoming Asia’s leading platform for dialog—Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2010. The annual conference held at Boao, Hainan Province, brought global thought leaders together to discuss this year’s theme – how Asia can continue to grow while ensuring, at the same time, that the growth is “green” and sustainable.

Mohamed H. Al-Mady, SABIC Vice Chairman and CEO, was one of only three corporate leaders invited to address the opening plenary session, following keynote speeches by Xi Jinping, Vice President of the People’s Republic of China, and other political leaders from throughout the region. 

Highlighting the challenging task of finding a green and sustainable path forward Al-Mady’s keynote speech noted that SABIC is committed to reducing the company’s carbon intensity, improving energy, water and material efficiency through operational excellence, and innovating more sustainable products and processes.

“Sustainable development has become a central aspect of our business strategy,” Al-Mady said and added “We will involve all our employees in the journey—and hope to engage all our customers and partners in Asia in this journey as well.”

BFA’s popular and well-attended Mergers and Acquisitions Panel session saw Al-Mady featured as one of the key business experts on the panel where he told the attending delegates that SABIC’s market has become global and that SABIC  has learned much from its acquisition partners, especially DSM, Huntsman Petrochemicals and GE Plastics.

“A part of our strategy in evaluating acquisition targets is to look for strong market reputation, leadership and talents of the people that can be transferred to SABIC,” he said.

Al-Mady, as a Member of the Board of BFA, attended both the outgoing Board’s meeting on April 8, presided over by former President of the Philippines Fidel Ramos, and the incoming Board’s meeting on the same day with new members, presided over by Yasuo Fukuda, the former Prime Minister of Japan.

The founding of the Forum, which is committed to promoting regional economic integration and bringing Asian countries even closer to their development goals, was driven by the People’s Republic of China and officially launched by 26 Australasian states in 2001, with its first meeting in 2002.