Kuala Lumpur has been given the honour of becoming the first city in South East Asia to host a major International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) event with her selection as the host city for the 6^th World Chambers Congress 2009 (6^th WCC 2009) by the ICC World Chambers Federation (WCF) Congress selection committee.

Kuala Lumpur’s ‘win’ of this major biennial meeting to be held at the purpose-built Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in 2009, was announced at the WCF meeting held in late last year (2006) in New Delhi, India.

When announcing the bid results, WCF chairman, Rona Yicali said that choosing a candidate was not an easy task for members of the Congress Selection Committee but a series of small but important issues resulted in Kuala Lumpur being chosen to host the 2009 Congress.

“The FMM narrowly beat strong contender, Commerce Queensland, as well as the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Tajikistan for what is the only international forum for chamber executives worldwide that is held once every two years in different regions of the world.”

In his acceptance speech, Datuk Mustafa Mansur, Past President of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM), said that “It is our objective to bring chambers from South-East Asia together to network with global chambers from Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific Islands and the Far East.”

Elaborating further, Datuk Mustafa said the WCC is the only WCF event that brings chambers of all sizes and nationalities together. “The WCC provides the forum for chamber members to share best practice experiences, develop networks and to learn about innovations from their fellow chambers to tackle challenges each face and to remain relevant in their respective regions.”

The prestige and importance of the WCC to the hosting chamber is such that it has already taken its planning and schedule well into the next decade with chambers from the Americas, Africa and Europe already registering their interest to host the Congress in 2011, 2013 and 2015, when it returns to those regions.

The most recent statistics are from the last Congress in 2005, which was held in South Africa. It saw participation from chamber leaders and executives from over 90 countries. Istanbul is to host to this year’s Congress from 4 to 6 July 2007.

Speaking on behalf of the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, director of marketing and sales, Jenny Salsbury said, “Malaysia is, of course, ideally placed for easy access from not only the ASEAN countries but also the newly emerging industrial nations in the region and an event of this kind often requires a venue capable of meeting exact requirements on quality, ambience and capacity. It is for these reasons that the purpose-built Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (the Centre) has become the preferred venue for many local, regional and international conventions, congresses and meetings.”

In recent months, the Centre was also the venue for the National Accountants Conference (NAC) 2006, the XVIII FIGO 2006 World Congress of Gynecology & Obstetrics and the 6^th Asian and Oceanian Epilepsy Congress.  In the calendar year of 2006, 430 events were held at the RM550 million Centre.